Epigenetic targeting of immunocheckpoint PD-L1 by BET bromodomain inhibition

Epigenetic regulators have emerged as exciting targets for cancer therapy. Additionally, restoration of antitumor immunity by blocking the PD-L1 signaling using antibodies has proven to be beneficial in cancer therapy. Here we show that BET bromodomain inhibition suppresses PD-L1 expression and restores antitumor immunity in ovarian cancer. CD274 (encoding PD-L1) is a direct target of BRD4-mediated gene transcription. In mouse models, treatment with the BET inhibitor JQ1 significantly reduced PD-L1 expression on tumor cells and tumor-associated dendritic cells and macrophages, which correlated with an increase in the activity of antitumor cytotoxic T cells. Together, these data demonstrate an epigenetic approach to block PD-L1 signaling to restore antitumor immunity. Given the fact that BET inhibitors have been proven safe with manageable reversible toxicity in clinical trials, our findings indicate that pharmacological BET inhibitors represent a novel treatment strategy for targeting PD-L1 expression. Overall design: RNA-seq for JQ1 treated and shBRD4 knockdown cells with controls

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Zhu H, Bengsch F, Svoronos N, Rutkowski MR, Bitler BG, Allegrezza MJ, Yokoyama Y, Kossenkov AV, Bradner JE, Conejo-Garcia JR, Zhang R