Abstract 4553: Snail1 in primary breast tumors remotely regulates a pro-tumor immune response in the bone marrow
Authors: Mathew Sebastian, Dongjiang Chen, Son Le, Duy Nguyen, Changwang Deng, Dan Jin, Nagheme Thomas, David Tran
Journal: Cancer Research (2019)

Abstract Systemic immunosuppression in cancer is a mechanism of immune escape allowing for cancer progression to metastasis and remains a major pathophysiologic barrier to treatment including immunotherapies. The mechanism of this phenomenon remains relatively obscured. Although immune suppressive humoral factors secreted by primary tumors are thought to be a major cause of immune escape, a major question remains whether factors critical for cancer metastasis also dually regulate systemic immunosuppression to prepare peripheral sites for the eventual encounter with metastasizing cancer cells. To that end, we report here that the master cancer epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) initiating factor Snail1, whose expression is restricted to the primary tumor where it promotes the generation of invasive breast tumor-initiating cells, yet also has a direct role in creating a pro-tumor systemic immune environment to promote metastasis. These dual roles for Snail1 in breast cancer progression has not been elucidated. Using both spontaneous genetic murine model of breast cancer and a syngeneic orthotopic breast cancer model we demonstrate that Snail1 is uniquely required for metastatic spread of breast tumor cells while also directly modulates the bone marrow niche, skewing it towards a suppressive immune phenotype with an upregulation of myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and a decrease in antigen presenting cell (APC) populations. Importantly, deletion of Snail1 specifically in primary tumors severely abrogated metastasis and simultaneously restored bone marrow immune populations to levels in non-tumor bearing animals. In vitro co-culture assays demonstrated that humoral factors from Snail1-repleted cancer cells promoted MDSC formation and suppressed APCs when compared to Snail1-deficient cancer cells. Mechanistically, Snail1 modulates systemic immunosuppression specifically through 1) upregulating the expression of GM-CSF, CXCL2, and CCL2, factors important for MDSC induction and recruitment, within the primary tumor to saturate the periphery with these factors; and 2) generating metastatic cells that may suppress immune functions within the metastatic niche. Taken together, these data demonstrate Snail1’s central role in metastatic progression in breast cancer through its direct generation of metastatic cells and suppressing the systemic immune system to increase the chance that these metastatic cells may survive the periphery. Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Mathew Sebastian, Dongjiang Chen, Son Le, Duy Nguyen, Changwang Deng, Dan Jin, Nagheme Thomas, David Tran. Snail1 in primary breast tumors remotely regulates a pro-tumor immune response in the bone marrow [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4553.