Browsing by Subject "STING"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    STING-driven activation of T cells: relevance for the adoptive cell therapy of cancer
    (Shared Science Publishers, 2023-11-14) Richter, Fabian; Paget, Christophe; Apetoh, Lionel; Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine
    Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) can successfully treat hematopoietic cancers but lacks efficacy against solid tumors. This is due to insufficient T cell infiltration, high tumor heterogeneity, frequent antigen loss with subsequent tumor escape, and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). Alternative methods to boost the anticancer efficacy of adoptively transferred cells are actively pursued. Among adjuvants that are utilized to stimulate anticancer immune responses, ligands of the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway have received increasing attention. STING activation can trigger dendritic cell (DC) activation and endogenous immune responses, thereby preventing tumor escape. Activation of the STING pathway in the context of ACT was accordingly associated with improved T cell trafficking and persistence in the TME combined with the reduced presence of immunosuppressive cells. Recent findings also suggest cell-intrinsic effects of STING ligands on T cells. Activation of the STING signaling pathway was in this regard shown to enhance effector functions of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, suggesting that the STING signaling could be exploited to harness T cell anticancer functions. In this review, we will discuss how the STING signaling can be used to enhance the anticancer efficacy of ACT.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    ZNFX1 is a Novel Master Regulator in Epigenetically-induced Pathogen Mimicry and Inflammasome Signaling in Cancer
    (bioRxiv, 2024-10-21) Stojanovic, Lora; Abbotts, Rachel; Tripathi, Kaushlendra; Coon, Collin M.; Rajendran, Saranya; Farid, Elnaz Abbasi; Hostetter, Galen; Guarnieri, Joseph W.; Wallace, Douglas C.; Liu, Sheng; Wan, Jun; Calendo, Gennaro; Marker, Rebecca; Gohari, Zahra; Inayatullah, Mohammed M. A.; Tiwari, Vijay K.; Kader, Tanjina; Santagata, Sandro; Drapkin, Ronny; Kommoss, Stefan; Pfisterer, Jacobus; Konecny, Gottfried E.; Coopergard, Ryan; Issa, Jean-Pierre; Winterhoff, Boris J. N.; Topper, Michael J.; Sandusky, George E.; Miller, Kathy D.; Baylin, Stephen B.; Nephew, Kenneth P.; Rassool, Feyruz V.; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine
    DNA methyltransferase and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (DNMTis, PARPis) induce a stimulator of interferon (IFN) genes (STING)-dependent pathogen mimicry response (PMR) in ovarian (OC) and other cancers. We now show that combining DNMTis and PARPis upregulates expression of a little-studied nucleic-acid sensor, NFX1-type zinc finger-containing 1 protein (ZNFX1). We demonstrate that ZNFX1 is a novel master regulator for PMR induction in mitochondria, serving as a gateway for STING-dependent PMR. In patient OC databases, high ZNFX1 expression levels correlate with advanced stage disease. ZNFX1 expression alone significantly correlates with an increase in overall survival in a phase 3 trial for therapy-resistant OC patients receiving bevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy. In correlative RNA-seq data, inflammasome signaling through ZNFX1 correlates with abnormal vasculogenesis. ZNFX1 controls PMR signaling through the mitochondria and may serve as a biomarker to facilitate offering personalized therapy in OC patients, highlighting the strong translational significance of our findings.