Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

BAP1 Loss Promotes Suppressive Tumor Immune Microenvironment via Up-Regulation of PROS1 in Class 2 Uveal Melanomas

Version 1 : Received: 10 June 2022 / Approved: 16 June 2022 / Online: 16 June 2022 (10:42:50 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Kaler, C.J.; Dollar, J.J.; Cruz, A.M.; Kuznetsoff, J.N.; Sanchez, M.I.; Decatur, C.L.; Licht, J.D.; Smalley, K.S.M.; Correa, Z.M.; Kurtenbach, S.; Harbour, J.W. BAP1 Loss Promotes Suppressive Tumor Immune Microenvironment via Upregulation of PROS1 in Class 2 Uveal Melanomas. Cancers 2022, 14, 3678. Kaler, C.J.; Dollar, J.J.; Cruz, A.M.; Kuznetsoff, J.N.; Sanchez, M.I.; Decatur, C.L.; Licht, J.D.; Smalley, K.S.M.; Correa, Z.M.; Kurtenbach, S.; Harbour, J.W. BAP1 Loss Promotes Suppressive Tumor Immune Microenvironment via Upregulation of PROS1 in Class 2 Uveal Melanomas. Cancers 2022, 14, 3678.

Abstract

Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common primary cancer of the eye and is associated with a high rate of metastatic death. UM can be stratified into two main classes based on metastatic risk, with class 1 UM having a low metastatic risk and class 2 UM having a high metastatic risk. Class 2 UM have a distinctive genomic, transcriptomic, histopathologic, and clinical phenotype characterized by biallelic inactivation of the BAP1 tumor suppressor gene, an immune suppressive microenvironment enriched for M2-polarized macrophages, and poor response to checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy. To identify potential mechanistic links between BAP1 loss and immune suppression in class 2 UM, we performed an integrated analysis of UM samples, as well as genetically engineered UM cell lines and uveal melanocytes (UMC). Using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), we found that the most highly up-regulated gene associated with BAP1 loss across these datasets was PROS1, which encodes a ligand that triggers phosphorylation and activation of the immunosuppressive macrophage receptor MERTK. The inverse association between BAP1 and PROS1 in class 2 UM was confirmed by single-cell RNA-seq, which also revealed that MERTK was up-regulated in CD163+ macrophages in class 2 UM. Using ChIP-seq, BAP1 knockdown in UM cells resulted in an accumulation of H3K27ac at the PROS1 locus, suggesting epigenetic regulation of PROS1 by BAP1. Phosphorylation of MERTK in RAW 264.7 monocyte-macrophage cells was increased upon co-culture with BAP1-/- UMCs, and this phosphorylation was blocked by depletion of PROS1 in the UMCs. These findings were corroborated by multi-color immunohistochemistry, where class 2/BAP1-mutant UMs demonstrated increased PROS1 expression in tumor cells and increased MERTK phosphorylation in CD163+ macrophages compared to class 1/BAP1-wildtype UMs. Taken together, these findings provide a mechanistic link between BAP1 loss and suppression of the tumor immune microenvironment in class 2 UMs, and they implicate the PROS1-MERTK pathway as a potential target for immunotherapy in UM.

Keywords

uveal melanoma; BAP1; PROS1; MERTK; macrophage; tumor immune microenvironment; metastasis

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Immunology and Microbiology

Comments (0)

We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our Diversity statement.

Leave a public comment
Send a private comment to the author(s)
* All users must log in before leaving a comment
Views 0
Downloads 0
Comments 0
Metrics 0


×
Alerts
Notify me about updates to this article or when a peer-reviewed version is published.
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here.