单位:[1]Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China[2]Key Laboratory of High-Incidence-Tumor Prevention and Treatment (Guangxi Medical University), Ministry of Education, Nanning, China[3]Department of Genetic Engineering, Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing, China[4]Department of Medical Oncology and State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, National Cancer Center/ Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China[5]Department of Gastroenterology, First Medical Center of Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing, China[6]Department of Radiation Oncology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China
As a critical immune checkpoint molecule, PD-L1 is expressed at significantly higher levels in multiple neoplastic tissues compared to normal ones. PD-L1/PD-1 axis is a critical target for tumor immunotherapy, blocking the PD-L1/PD-1 axis is recognized and has achieved unprecedented success in clinical applications. However, the clinical efficacy of therapies targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway remains limited, emphasizing the need for the mechanistic elucidation of PD-1/PD-L1 expression. In this study, we found that RNF125 interacted with PD-L1 and regulated PD-L1 protein expression. Mechanistically, RNF125 promoted K48-linked polyubiquitination of PD-L1 and mediated its degradation. Notably, MC-38 and H22 cell lines with RNF125 knockout, transplanted in C57BL/6 mice, exhibited a higher PD-L1 level and faster tumor growth than their parental cell lines. In contrast, overexpression of RNF125 in MC-38 and H22 cells had the opposite effect, resulting in lower PD-L1 levels and delayed tumor growth compared with parental cell lines. In addition, immunohistochemical analysis of MC-38 tumors with RNF125 overexpression showed significantly increased infiltration of CD4+, CD8+ T cells and macrophages. Consistent with these findings, analyses using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) public database revealed a positive correlation of RNF125 expression with CD4+, CD8+ T cell and macrophage tumor infiltration. Moreover, RNF125 expression was significantly downregulated in several human cancer tissues, and was negatively correlated with the clinical stage of these tumors, and patients with higher RNF125 expression had better clinical outcomes. Our findings identify a novel mechanism for regulating PD-L1 expression and may provide a new strategy to increase the efficacy of immunotherapy.
基金:
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [81860502, 81301871]; Key Laboratory of Early Prevention and Treatment for Regional High Frequency Tumor, Ministry of Education [GKE2019-06, GKE-ZZ202004, GKE-ZZ202129]; Key project of Guangxi Science and Technology Department [Gui Ke AB16380242]
第一作者单位:[1]Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China[2]Key Laboratory of High-Incidence-Tumor Prevention and Treatment (Guangxi Medical University), Ministry of Education, Nanning, China
共同第一作者:
通讯作者:
通讯机构:[1]Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China[2]Key Laboratory of High-Incidence-Tumor Prevention and Treatment (Guangxi Medical University), Ministry of Education, Nanning, China
推荐引用方式(GB/T 7714):
Meng Wei,Yunhai Mo,Jialong Liu,et al.Ubiquitin ligase RNF125 targets PD-L1 for ubiquitination and degradation[J].FRONTIERS IN ONCOLOGY.2022,12:doi:10.3389/fonc.2022.835603.
APA:
Meng Wei,Yunhai Mo,Jialong Liu,Jingtong Zhai,Huilong Li...&Feixiang Wu.(2022).Ubiquitin ligase RNF125 targets PD-L1 for ubiquitination and degradation.FRONTIERS IN ONCOLOGY,12,
MLA:
Meng Wei,et al."Ubiquitin ligase RNF125 targets PD-L1 for ubiquitination and degradation".FRONTIERS IN ONCOLOGY 12.(2022)