Overcoming the immune evasion mechanism of Merkel cell polyomavirus-associated Merkel cell carcinoma

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Project Summary Tumor immune escape represents a major obstacle in cancer immunotherapy, however, the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. The goal of this exploratory research proposal is to overcome the immune evasion mechanism of Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), a highly lethal skin cancer associated with merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV). Currently, there is no effective therapeutic treatment for metastatic MCCs. A large portion of MCCs is resistant to the immune checkpoint therapies. Immuno-suppression is an important risk factor for MCPyV- associated MCC. Furthermore, in more than 90% of MCC patients with normal immune function, MCC tumors continue to develop despite the production of T cells recognizing MCPyV-encoded oncoproteins expressed in the tumors. Tumor-infiltrating MCPyV-specific T cells are critical for improved patient survival, and yet they are sparsely present in a very small percentage of MCCs and show significantly reduced activation. These observations support that MCPyV-associated MCCs may escape immunological destruction by restricting T-cell intratumoral infiltration and repressing T cell activation. However, the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. We recently discovered that Stimulator of Interferon Genes (STING) is completely silenced in MCPyV+ MCCs. Because STING function is critical for sensing damaged DNA in cancer cells to stimulate cytokine production, intratumoral CD8+ T cell infiltration, and antitumor T cell responses, we hypothesize that STING silencing in MCC contributes to its immune suppressive nature and that reactivation of STING in MCCs can stimulate T cell infiltration and antitumor cytotoxicity. To test this hypothesis, we have developed a novel approach to specifically activate STING in MCC but not other human cells. This approach will be combined with engineered human T cells, an MCC mouse xenograft model, as well as a humanized mouse tumor model to define the functional impact of STING reactivation on stimulating T cell intratumoral infiltration and antitumor immune responses. Because STING signaling is also important for enhancing the antitumor efficacy of checkpoint inhibitors, we will combine our new STING-reactivating method with PD-1 blockade to achieve synergistic antitumor activity and circumvent MCC resistance to immune checkpoint therapies. These studies have the potential to overcome the MCC immunoescape mechanism and develop novel therapeutic strategies to treat the highly aggressive MCC cancers. Our study may also reveal a novel strategy for overcoming the toxicity and limitation of traditional human STING agonist-based therapies.