Prostaglandin E₂ impacts multiple stages of the natural killer cell antitumor immune response
Author(s)
Patterson, Chloe
Hazime, Khodor
Zelenay, Santiago
Davis, Daniel
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Tumor immune escape is a major factor contributing to cancer progression and unresponsiveness to cancer therapies. Tumors can produce prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), an inflammatory mediator that directly acts on Natural killer (NK) cells to inhibit antitumor immunity. However, precisely how PGE2 influences NK cell tumor-restraining functions remains unclear. Here, we report that following PGE₂ treatment, human NK cells exhibited altered expression of specific activating receptors and a reduced ability to degranulate and kill cancer targets. Transcriptional analysis uncovered that PGE₂ also differentially modulated the expression of chemokine receptors by NK cells, inhibiting CXCR3 but increasing CXCR4. Consistent with this, PGE₂-treated NK cells exhibited decreased migration to CXCL10 but increased ability to migrate toward CXCL12. Using live cell imaging, we showed that in the presence of PGE2, NK cells were slower and less likely to kill cancer target cells following conjugation. Imaging the sequential stages of NK cell killing revealed that PGE₂ impaired NK cell polarization, but not the re-organization of synaptic actin or the release of perforin itself. Together, these findings demonstrate that PGE₂ affects multiple but select NK cell functions. Understanding how cancer cells subvert NK cells is necessary to more effectively harness the cancer-inhibitory function of NK cells in treatments.
Date Issued
2024-02-01
Date Acceptance
2023-11-28
Citation
European Journal of Immunology, 2024, 54 (2)
ISSN
0014-2980
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
European Journal of Immunology
Volume
54
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2023 The Authors. European Journal of Immunology published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 2350635
Date Publish Online
2023-12-07