TLR9 ligation in pancreatic stellate cells promotes tumorigenesis

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Constantinos P Zambirinis - , New York University (Author)
  • Elliot Levie - , New York University (Author)
  • Susanna Nguy - , New York University (Author)
  • Antonina Avanzi - , New York University (Author)
  • Rocky Barilla - , New York University (Author)
  • Yijie Xu - , New York University (Author)
  • Lena Seifert - , Department of Visceral, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, National Center for Tumor Diseases (Partners: UKD, MFD, HZDR, DKFZ), New York University (Author)
  • Donnele Daley - , New York University (Author)
  • Stephanie H Greco - , New York University (Author)
  • Michael Deutsch - , New York University (Author)
  • Saikiran Jonnadula - , New York University (Author)
  • Alejandro Torres-Hernandez - , New York University (Author)
  • Daniel Tippens - , New York University (Author)
  • Smruti Pushalkar - , New York University (Author)
  • Andrew Eisenthal - , New York University (Author)
  • Deepak Saxena - , New York University (Author)
  • Jiyoung Ahn - , New York University (Author)
  • Cristina Hajdu - , New York University (Author)
  • Dannielle D Engle - , Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories (Author)
  • David Tuveson - , Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories (Author)
  • George Miller - , New York University (Author)

Abstract

Modulation of Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling can have protective or protumorigenic effects on oncogenesis depending on the cancer subtype and on specific inflammatory elements within the tumor milieu. We found that TLR9 is widely expressed early during the course of pancreatic transformation and that TLR9 ligands are ubiquitous within the tumor microenvironment. TLR9 ligation markedly accelerates oncogenesis, whereas TLR9 deletion is protective. We show that TLR9 activation has distinct effects on the epithelial, inflammatory, and fibrogenic cellular subsets in pancreatic carcinoma and plays a central role in cross talk between these compartments. Specifically, TLR9 activation can induce proinflammatory signaling in transformed epithelial cells, but does not elicit oncogene expression or cancer cell proliferation. Conversely, TLR9 ligation induces pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) to become fibrogenic and secrete chemokines that promote epithelial cell proliferation. TLR9-activated PSCs mediate their protumorigenic effects on the epithelial compartment via CCL11. Additionally, TLR9 has immune-suppressive effects in the tumor microenvironment (TME) via induction of regulatory T cell recruitment and myeloid-derived suppressor cell proliferation. Collectively, our work shows that TLR9 has protumorigenic effects in pancreatic carcinoma which are distinct from its influence in extrapancreatic malignancies and from the mechanistic effects of other TLRs on pancreatic oncogenesis.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2077-94
Number of pages18
JournalThe Journal of experimental medicine
Volume212
Issue number12
Publication statusPublished - 16 Nov 2015
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMedCentral PMC4647258
Scopus 84964391958

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

Keywords

  • Animals, Cell Line, Tumor, Cell Proliferation/genetics, Cell Transformation, Neoplastic/drug effects, Cells, Cultured, Chemokine CCL11/metabolism, Chemokines/metabolism, Epithelial Cells/metabolism, Immunoblotting, Ligands, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mice, Knockout, Microscopy, Confocal, Oligodeoxyribonucleotides/pharmacology, Pancreatic Neoplasms/genetics, Pancreatic Stellate Cells/metabolism, Signal Transduction/genetics, Toll-Like Receptor 9/genetics, Tumor Microenvironment/drug effects