IL-17D, natural killer cells, and macrophages collaborate to promote tumor rejection (P2097)

Abstract

Abstract The process of cancer immunoediting generates a repertoire of cancer cells that can persist in immune competent hosts. In its most complex form, this process begins with the elimination of highly immunogenic unedited tumor cells followed by the eventual escape of less immunogenic, edited cells. However, it is not known whether editing can also change the global gene expression profile of developing tumor cells. Here we show using a gene microarray study that the novel cytokine interleukin 17D (IL-17D) is highly expressed in certain unedited but not edited mouse tumor cell lines or certain human tumors. Moreover, forced expression of IL-17D in edited tumor cells induced rejection by stimulating monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1, aka CCL2) production from tumor endothelial cells leading to the recruitment of natural killer (NK) cells. We go on to show that NK cells can promote the accumulation of M1-type macrophages. Altogether, these results identify IL-17D as a novel cytokine and describe one mechanism by which IL-17D can induce tumor rejection.