Role of neutrophil polarization during Pseudomonas aeruginosa-induced sepsis in the immunocompromised host
Final Report Abstract
In this project, we set out to determine the role of tumor-associated neutrophils in the susceptibility of immunosupressed individuals to Pseudomonas aeruginosa sepsis. We could demonstrate that growing tumors significantly impact the phenotype, functionality and activity of neutrophils in tumor-bearing hosts. Moreover, type I IFN system seems to play a role in this process as tumor-associated neutrophils from IFN-deficient animals seems to have strong protumor bias, including elevated survival, elevated migratory capacity and strong pro-angiogenic capacity. Such pro-tumoral neutrophils support also efficiently metastatic processes by the accumulation in target organs and expressing S100A8 and S100A9 that attract tumor cells. Importantly, we could observe that the lack of type I IFN signaling support expression of G- CSF – growth factor strongly involved in the regulation of neutrophil activity. The mechanisms behind this process should be further investigated. Next to their tumorigenic activity, neutrophils in tumor-bearing hosts show also altered antibacterial capacity. We could demonstrate that neutrophils isolated from tumor-bearing mice, but also from tumor patients show decreased anti-bacterial properties, such as phagocytosis, NETs formation and ROS release. At the same time these neutrophils seem to exert strong cytotoxic capacity towards epithelial cells. We have found that high G-CSF levels released by tumor lead to the prominent neutrophil infiltration in the lungs and significant alterations of neutrophil activity. These changes lead to the prominent tissue damage and the persistence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the lung. Restoring the balance between antibacterial and tissue-damaging properties could serve as an additional way of prevention or treatment of the bacterial complications in patients with cancer. Moreover, screening for G-CSF levels in cancer-bearing individuals may be considered as a tool to determine the patients with high predisposition to bacterial complications. In the context of type I IFNs, we could unexpectedly observe that IFN-deficient tumor-free animals are less susceptible for Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections, in comparison to their WT counterparts. Importantly, in spite of their important role in the activation of immune system, type I interferons stimulate neutrophils to release NETs that are subsequently used by the bacteria to create biofilms that support Pseudomonas to better survive in the lungs of the host. Moreover, such NETs participate in the damage of the lung tissue due to the presence of histones and proteolytic enzymes in such structures. All together, the activation of neutrophils by type I IFNs was mainly harmful for the host, not protective, which was the unexpected result of our studies. We plan to further evaluate mechanisms regulating neutrophil anti-bacterial activity in tumor bearing hosts and expand our studies on other bacterial strains, different infection models and tumors. All these results should lead to better understanding of the mechanisms that regulate bactericidal functions of neutrophils in cancer patients, but will also identify factors that may be targeted therapeutically to support antibacterial neutrophil functions in such patients. This could provide a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of cancer patients who are prone to develop infection-associated complications during, or after, therapy as a result of impaired neutrophil activity.
Publications
- The essential role of type I interferons in differentiation and activation of tumor associated neutrophils. Frontiers in Immunology. (2016); 7:629
Pylaeva E, Lang S and Jablonska J
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2016.00629) - Type I IFNs induce anti-tumor polarization of tumor associated neutrophils in mice and human. Int. J. Cancer (2016); 138, (8) 1982-1993
Andzinski L, Kasnitz N, Stahnke S, Wu CF, Gereke M, von Köckritz-Blickwede M, Schilling B, Brandau S, Weiss S and Jablonska J
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.29945) - Neutrophil, Quo Vadis. J. Leuc. Biol. (2017); 102(3):685-688
Jablonska J, Granot Z
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1189/jlb.3MR0117-015R) - The regulation of pre-metastatic niche formation by neutrophils. Oncotarget (2017); 8(67):112132-112144
Jablonska J, Lang S, Sionov RV and Granot Z
(See online at https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.22792) - Detrimental Effect of Type I IFNs During Acute Lung Infection With Pseudomonas aeruginosa Is Mediated Through the Stimulation of Neutrophil NETosis. Frontiers in Immunology (2019) Sep 11;10:2190
Pylaeva E, Bordbari S, Spyra I, Decker A, Häussler S, Vybornov V, Lang S and Jablonska J
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2019.02190) - Interactions among myeloid regulatory cells in cancer. Cancer Immunol Immunother (2019); 68(4):645-660
Umansky V, Adema G, Baran J, Brandau S, van Ginderachter JA, Hu Xiaoying, Jablonska J, Mojsilovic S, Papadaki H, Pico de Coana Y, Santegoets K, Santibanez JF, Serre K, Si Y, Sieminska I, Velegraki M, Fridlender Z
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-018-2200-6) - NAMPT signaling is critical for the proangiogenic activity of tumor-associated neutrophils. Int. J Cancer (2019); 144(1):136-149
Pylaeva E, Dehghan Harati M, Spyra I, Bordbari S, Strachan S, Kumar Thakur B, Höing B, Franklin C, Skokowa J, Welte K, Schadendorf D, Bankfalvi A, Brandau S, Lang S and Jablonska J
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.31808) - Neutrophil maturation and survival is controlled by IFN-dependent regulation of NAMPT signaling. Int. J Mol. Sciences. (2019) 20(22)
Siakaeva E, Pylaeva E, Spyra I, Bordbari S, Höing B, Kürten C, Lang S, Jablonska J
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20225584) - Prognostic Role of Blood NETosis in the Progression of Head and Neck Cancer. Cells (2019) 8(9), 946
Decker AS, Pylaeva E, Brenzel A, SpyraI, Droege F, HussainT, Lang S and Jablonska J
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3390/cells8090946) - Das Mikrobiom bei Kopf-Hals-Tumoren – Erste Erkenntnisse und Ausblick. HNO (2020) 68(12), 905-910
Lang S, Brandau S, Marchesi J, Jablonska J, Thurnher D, Mattheis S, Buer J, Hussain T
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00106-020-00950-w) - Neutrophils in the tumor microenvironment – friend or foe? HNO (2020) 68(12), 891-898
Jablonska J, Rist M, Lang S and Brandau S
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00106-020-00928-8)
