Abstract 4055: Enhancing anti-PD-1 immune blockade in melanoma through selective inhibition of histone deacetylase 6

Abstract

Abstract Histone deacetylases (HDACs), were originally described in a limited context as histone modifiers. New evidence has demonstrated that HDACs are also involved in a diverse range of cellular processes that are not restricted to the chromatin environment, such as the regulation of the cell cycle/apoptosis and, more recently, a modulator of immune response. However, much remains unknown about the mechanism of action of HDACs and their roles in the immune-biology of cancer. The non-specific nature of pan-HDAC inhibitors results in a narrow therapeutic window of use, limiting the dose and duration due to toxicity. Our group has focused in one specific HDAC, HDAC6, and shown that both the genetic abrogation and pharmacological inhibition of this HDAC modulates the expression of a variety of immune-regulatory proteins in the tumor microenvironment, including PD-L1, PD-L2, MHC class I, B7-H4 and TRAIL-R1. In particular, we have previously demonstrated that both pharmacological inhibition and/or genetic abrogation of HDAC6 plays a critical role in the immune check point blockade by down-regulating the expression of PD-L1 and other check-point modulators such as PD-L2, B7-H4, etc. Moreover, we have also observed that in vivo inhibition of HDAC6 reduces tumor growth in B16 and SM1 murine melanoma models within syngeneic immunocompetent hosts. Additionally, we have found that the combination of low doses of the HDAC6i Nexturastat A and checkpoint immune blockade, including anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA4, results in an important improvement in anti-tumor immune responses as evidenced by the reduction of tumor growth when compared to treatment with individual stand-alone agents. In these studies we also evidenced an increased production of IFNγ and IL-2 in the stand-alone check-point inhibitor treatments, which leads to an upregulation of PD-L1 and PD-L2. Similar levels of IFNγ and IL-2 were found in the combination groups. However, the expression level of PD-L1 and PD-L2 were comparable to the non-treated group. Taking all together, we have found that HDAC6i could be used as a potential adjuvant in ongoing therapeutic options involving immune check-point blockade. Citation Format: Tessa Knox, Eva Sahakian, Jayakumar Nair, Jennifer Kim, Debarati Banik, Melissa Hadley, John Powers, Fengdong Cheng, Sida Shen, Javier Pinilla, Jeffrey Weber, Alan Kozikowski, Eduardo Sotomayor, Alejandro Villagra. Enhancing anti-PD-1 immune blockade in melanoma through selective inhibition of histone deacetylase 6 [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4055. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4055