Citation

  • Authors: Kudo-Saito, C., Shirako, H., Ohike, M., Tsukamoto, N., Kawakami, Y.
  • Year: 2013
  • Journal: Clin Exp Metastasis 30 393-405
  • Applications: in vitro / siRNA / jetPEI
  • Cell types:
    1. Name: ARPE-19
      Description: Human retinal pigment epithelial cell line
    2. Name: COLO 320
      Description: Human colon adenocarcinoma cells.
      Known as: COLO-320; Colo-320; Colo320; CoLo320; Co320; COLO 320F.
    3. Name: HCT 116
      Description: Human colon carcinoma cells
      Known as: HCT116
    4. Name: Hs 294T
      Description: Human melanoma cells.
      Known as: Hs294T; HS294T; HS-294T; Hs-294T; HS-294-T; HS-294; Hs294.
    5. Name: MIA PaCa-2
      Description: Human pancreatic cells
      Known as: MIAPaCa-2
    6. Name: PANC-1
      Description: Human pancreatic carcinoma cells

Abstract

We previously found that cancer metastasis is accelerated by immunosuppression during Snail-induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). However, the molecular mechanism still remained unclear. Here, we demonstrate that CCL2 is a critical determinant for both tumor metastasis and immunosuppression induced by Snail(+) tumor cells. CCL2 is significantly upregulated in various human tumor cells accompanied by Snail expression induced by snail transduction or TGFbeta treatment. The Snail(+) tumor-derived CCL2 amplifies EMT events in other cells including Snail(-) tumor cells and epithelial cells within tumor microenvironment. CCL2 secondarily induces Lipocalin 2 (LCN2) in the Snail(+) tumor cells in an autocrine manner. CCL2 and LCN2 cooperatively generate immunoregulatory dendritic cells (DCreg) having suppressive activity accompanied by lowered expression of costimulatory molecules such as HLA-DR but increased expression of immunosuppressive molecules such as PD-L1 in human PBMCs. The CCL2/LCN2-induced DCreg cells subsequently induce immunosuppressive CD4(+)FOXP3(+) Treg cells, and finally impair tumor-specific CTL induction. In murine established tumor model, however, CCL2 blockade utilizing the specific siRNA or neutralizing mAb significantly inhibits Snail(+) tumor growth and metastasis following systemic induction of anti-tumor immune responses in host. These results suggest that CCL2 is more than a chemoattractant factor that is the significant effector molecule responsible for immune evasion of Snail(+) tumor cells. CCL2 would be an attractive target for treatment to eliminate cancer cells via amelioration of tumor metastasis and immunosuppression.

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