1. Academic Validation
  2. The lactate receptor HCAR1 drives the recruitment of immunosuppressive PMN-MDSCs in colorectal cancer

The lactate receptor HCAR1 drives the recruitment of immunosuppressive PMN-MDSCs in colorectal cancer

  • Nat Immunol. 2025 Feb 4. doi: 10.1038/s41590-024-02068-5.
Jiacheng He # 1 Xiaolei Chai # 1 Qiansen Zhang # 1 Yang Wang # 2 Yijie Wang 1 Xinyu Yang 1 Jingbo Wu 2 Bo Feng 3 Jing Sun 3 Weiwei Rui 3 Shuyin Ze 1 Yuanyuan Fu 1 Yumiao Zhao 1 Ying Zhang 1 Yao Zhang 1 Meizhen Liu 1 Chuang Liu 4 Meifu She 4 Xiangfei Hu 4 Xueyun Ma 1 Huaiyu Yang 1 Dawei Li 5 Senlin Zhao 5 Guichao Li 5 Zhen Zhang 5 Zhonghui Tian 6 Yanlin Ma 7 Lingyan Cao 8 Bo Yi 9 Dali Li 1 Ruth Nussinov 10 11 Charis Eng 12 13 14 Timothy A Chan 14 15 Eytan Ruppin 16 J Silvio Gutkind 17 Feixiong Cheng 12 13 14 Mingyao Liu 18 19 Weiqiang Lu 20 21
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Shanghai Key Laboratory of Regulatory Biology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences and School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
  • 2 Department of Urology and Department of Pathology, The Fifth People's Hospital of Shanghai, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
  • 3 Department of General Surgery and Department of Pathology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
  • 4 Research Center for Complexity Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.
  • 5 Department of Colorectal Surgery, Department of Radiation Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, China.
  • 6 School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
  • 7 Hainan Provincial Key Laboratory for Human Reproductive Medicine and Genetic Research, Hainan Provincial Clinical Research Center for Thalassemia, Department of Reproductive Medicine, Key Laboratory of Reproductive Health Diseases Research and Translation (Hainan Medical University), Ministry of Education, The First Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China.
  • 8 Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine; College of Stomatology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
  • 9 Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
  • 10 Computational Structural Biology Section, Basic Science Program, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Frederick, MD, USA.
  • 11 Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
  • 12 Genomic Medicine Institute, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
  • 13 Department of Molecular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
  • 14 Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA.
  • 15 Center for Immunotherapy and Precision Immuno-Oncology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
  • 16 Cancer Data Science Lab, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
  • 17 Department of Pharmacology and Moores Cancer Center, University of California,San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA.
  • 18 Shanghai Key Laboratory of Regulatory Biology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences and School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China. myliu@bio.ecnu.edu.cn.
  • 19 International Center for Aging and Cancer, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China. myliu@bio.ecnu.edu.cn.
  • 20 Shanghai Key Laboratory of Regulatory Biology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences and School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China. wqlu@bio.ecnu.edu.cn.
  • 21 University Engineering Research Center of Oncolytic & Nanosystem Development, Guangxi, China. wqlu@bio.ecnu.edu.cn.
  • # Contributed equally.
Abstract

Most patients with colorectal Cancer do not achieve durable clinical benefits from immunotherapy, underscoring the existence of alternative immunosuppressive mechanisms. Here we found that activation of the lactate receptor HCAR1 signaling pathway induced the expression of chemokines CCL2 and CCL7 in colorectal tumor cells, leading to the recruitment of immunosuppressive CCR2+ polymorphonuclear myeloid-derived suppressor cells (PMN-MDSCs) to the tumor microenvironment. Ablation of Hcar1 in mice with colorectal tumors significantly decreased the abundance of tumor-infiltrating CCR2+ PMN-MDSCs, enhanced the activation of CD8+ T cells and, consequently, reduced tumor burden. We detected immunosuppressive CCR2+ PMN-MDSCs in tumor specimens from individuals with colorectal and Other cancers. The US Food and Drug Administration-approved drug reserpine suppressed lactate-mediated HCAR1 activation, impaired the recruitment of CCR2+ PMN-MDSCs, boosted CD8+ T cell-dependent antitumor immunity and sensitized immunotherapy-resistant tumors to programmed cell death protein 1 antibody therapy in mice with colorectal tumors. Altogether, we described HCAR1-driven recruitment of CCR2+ PMN-MDSCs as a mechanism of immunosuppression.

Figures
Products
Inhibitors & Agonists
Other Products