Non-oncogenic Acute Viral Infections Disrupt Anti-cancer Responses and Lead to Accelerated Cancer-Specific Host Death.
Authors:
Kohlhapp, Frederick J Huelsmann, Erica J Lacek, Andrew T Schenkel, Jason M Lusciks, Jevgenijs Broucek, Joseph R Goldufsky, Josef W Hughes, Tasha Zayas, Janet P Dolubizno, Hubert Sowell, Ryan T Kühner, Regina Burd, Sarah Kubasiak, John C Nabatiyan, Arman Marshall, Sh'Rae Bommareddy, Praveen K Li, Shengguo Newman, Jenna H Monken, Claude E Shafikhani, Sasha H Marzo, Amanda L Guevara-Patino, Jose A Lasfar, Ahmed Thomas, Paul G Lattime, Edmund C Kaufman, Howard L Zloza, Andrew
Citation:
Kohlhapp FJ, etal., Cell Rep. 2016 Oct 18;17(4):957-965. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.09.068.
In light of increased cancer prevalence and cancer-specific deaths in patients with infections, we investigated whether infections alter anti-tumor immune responses. We report that acute influenza infection of the lung promotes distal melanoma growth in the dermis and leads to accelerated cancer-specific host death. Furthermore, we show that during influenza infection, anti-melanoma CD8+ T cells are shunted from the tumor to the infection site, where they express high levels of the inhibitory receptor programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1). Immunotherapy to block PD-1 reverses this loss of anti-tumor CD8+ T cells from the tumor and decreases infection-induced tumor growth. Our findings show that acute non-oncogenic infection can promote cancer growth, raising concerns regarding acute viral illness sequelae. They also suggest an unexpected role for PD-1 blockade in cancer immunotherapy and provide insight into the immune response when faced with concomitant challenges.