Zachary Buchwald, Yang Shen, Erin Connolly, Meili Aiello, Chengjing Zhou, Prasanthi Chappa, Haorui Song, Patan Tippitak, Tarralyn Clark, Maria Cardenas, Nataliya Prokhnevska, Annapaola Mariniello, Meghana Pagadala, Vishal Dhere, Sarwish Rafiq, Aparna Kesarwala, Alexandre Orthwein, Susan Thomas, Mohammad Khan, J Brandon Dixon, Gregory B Lesinski, Michael Lowe, Haydn Kissick, David Yu, Chrystal Paulos, Nicole Schmitt
Radiotherapy (RT) and anti-PD-L1 synergize to enhance local and distant (abscopal) tumor control. However, clinical results in humans have been variable. With the goal of improving clinical outcomes, we investigated the underlying synergistic mechanism focusing on a CD8+ PD-1+ Tcf-1+ stem-like T cell subset in the tumor-draining lymph node (TdLN). Using murine melanoma models, we found that RT + anti-PD-L1 induces a novel differentiation program in the TdLN stem-like population which leads to their expansion and differentiation into effector cells within the tumor...
March 6, 2024: Research Square