2. Academic Validation
  3. Targeting Pin1 renders pancreatic cancer eradicable by synergizing with immunochemotherapy

Targeting Pin1 renders pancreatic cancer eradicable by synergizing with immunochemotherapy

  • Cell. 2021 Sep 2;184(18):4753-4771.e27. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.020.
Kazuhiro Koikawa 1,  Shin Kibe 2,  Futoshi Suizu 3,  Nobufumi Sekino 4,  Nami Kim 5,  Theresa D Manz 6,  Benika J Pinch 6,  Dipikaa Akshinthala 7,  Ana Verma 8,  Giorgio Gaglia 8,  Yutaka Nezu 9,  Shizhong Ke 4,  Chenxi Qiu 4,  Kenoki Ohuchida 10,  Yoshinao Oda 11,  Tae Ho Lee 12,  Babara Wegiel 13,  John G Clohessy 14,  Nir London 15,  Sandro Santagata 8,  Gerburg M Wulf 7,  Manuel Hidalgo 7,  Senthil K Muthuswamy 7,  Masafumi Nakamura 10,  Nathanael S Gray 16,  Xiao Zhen Zhou 17,  Kun Ping Lu 18
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Division of Translational Therapeutics, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Cancer Research Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Surgery and Oncology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan.
  • 2 Division of Translational Therapeutics, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Cancer Research Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Surgery and Oncology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan; Chemical Biology and Therapeutics Science Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
  • 3 Division of Translational Therapeutics, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Cancer Research Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Division of Cancer Biology, Institute for Genetic Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0815, Japan.
  • 4 Division of Translational Therapeutics, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Cancer Research Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Chemical Biology and Therapeutics Science Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
  • 5 Division of Translational Therapeutics, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Cancer Research Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
  • 6 Department of Cancer Biology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
  • 7 Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Cancer Research Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
  • 8 Ludwig Center at Harvard, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
  • 9 Division of Translational Therapeutics, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Cancer Research Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
  • 10 Department of Surgery and Oncology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan.
  • 11 Department of Anatomical Pathology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan.
  • 12 Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
  • 13 Cancer Research Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Division of Surgical Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
  • 14 Cancer Research Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Preclinical Murine Pharmacogenetics Facility, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
  • 15 Department of Chemical and Structural Biology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 7610001, Israel.
  • 16 Department of Chemical and Systems Biology, Chem-H and Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
  • 17 Division of Translational Therapeutics, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Cancer Research Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Chemical Biology and Therapeutics Science Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 18 Division of Translational Therapeutics, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Cancer Research Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Chemical Biology and Therapeutics Science Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 34388391 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.020
Abstract

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterized by notorious resistance to current therapies attributed to inherent tumor heterogeneity and highly desmoplastic and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). Unique proline isomerase PIN1 regulates multiple Cancer pathways, but its role in the TME and Cancer Immunotherapy is unknown. Here, we find that PIN1 is overexpressed both in Cancer cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and correlates with poor survival in PDAC patients. Targeting PIN1 using clinically available drugs induces complete elimination or sustained remissions of aggressive PDAC by synergizing with anti-PD-1 and gemcitabine in diverse model systems. Mechanistically, PIN1 drives the desmoplastic and immunosuppressive TME by acting on CAFs and induces lysosomal degradation of the PD-1 ligand PD-L1 and the gemcitabine transporter ENT1 in Cancer cells, besides activating multiple Cancer pathways. Thus, PIN1 inhibition simultaneously blocks multiple Cancer pathways, disrupts the desmoplastic and immunosuppressive TME, and upregulates PD-L1 and ENT1, rendering PDAC eradicable by immunochemotherapy.

Keywords

Pin1; cancer immune evasion; cancer-associated fibroblasts; chemotherapy; combination therapy; immuni checkpoint therapy; pancreatic cancer; targeted therapy; tumor immune microenvironment; tumor microenvironment.

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