Lenvatinib enhances T cell immunity and the efficacy of adoptive chimeric antigen receptor-modified T cells by decreasing myeloid-derived suppressor cells in cancer

作者：Mengmeng Lü, Xiaokang Zhang, Xiaoge Gao, Shishuo Sun, Xiaohuan Wei, Xiaolei Hu, Chao Huang, Heng Xu, Bixi Wang, Wei Zhang, Zhen Li, Xinhui Feng, Junnian Zheng, Qing Zhang · 发表于：Pharmacological Research · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1016/j.phrs.2021.105829 · 被引用次数：50 · 研究领域：CAR-T cell therapy research、Immune cells in cancer、Phagocytosis and Immune Regulation

BACKGROUND: Lenvatinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has been approved for the treatment of several cancers. However, its regulatory activity and related mechanisms on T cell antitumour immunity need to be further investigated. METHODS: The antitumour activity of lenvatinib in immunocompetent and immunodeficient mice was compared to determine the role of T cell immunity. The antitumour activity of T cells was analysed by cytokine production and adoptive T cell therapy. The immunosuppressive effects of MDSCs on T cells were determined by detecting cytokine production in T cells after being cocultured with MDSCs. The adjuvant immunotherapy effect of lenvatinib was determined by combination therapy with CAR-T cells targeted carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) in a murine renal cancer model. RESULTS: The antitumour activity of lenvatinib was greater in immunocompetent mice than in immunodeficient mice and was attenuated by CD8+T cell depletion. Lenvatinib increased proliferation, tumour infiltration and antitumour activity of T cells. Importantly, adoptive transfer of lenvatinib-treated T cells showed a long-term antitumour response in vivo. Mechanistically, lenvatinib upregulated T cell-related chemokines (CXCL10 and CCL8) in tumours and decreased the frequency and immunosuppressive activity of MDSCs. Furthermore, lenvatinib enhanced the efficacy of CAR-T cells in a murine renal cancer model. CONCLUSION: Our study revealed novel antitumour mechanisms of lenvatinib by enhancing T cell-m...