γ-Secretase inhibitor reduces immunosuppressive cells and enhances tumour immunity in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Immune evasion is a hallmark feature of cancer, and it plays an important role in tumour initiation and progression. In addition, tumour immune evasion severely hampers the desired antitumour effect in multiple cancers. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of the Notch pathway in immune evasion in the head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) microenvironment. We first demonstrated that Notch1 signalling was activated in a Tgfbr1/Pten-knockout HNSCC mouse model. Notch signalling inhibition using a γ-secretase inhibitor (GSI-IX, DAPT) decreased tumour burden in the mouse model after prophylactic treatment. In addition, flow cytometry analysis indicated that Notch signalling inhibition reduced the sub-population of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs), and regulatory T cells (Tregs), as well as immune checkpoint molecules (PD1, CTLA4, TIM3 and LAG3), in the circulation and in the tumour. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) of human HNSCC tissues demonstrated that elevation of the Notch1 downstream target HES1 was correlated with MDSC, TAM and Treg markers and with immune checkpoint molecules. These results suggest that modulating the Notch signalling pathway may decrease MDSCs, TAMs, Tregs and immune checkpoint molecules in HNSCC. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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