DNA methyltransferase inhibition upregulates MHC-I to potentiate cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses in breast cancer.
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| Abstract |    :  
                  Potentiating anti-tumor immunity by inducing tumor inflammation and T cell-mediated responses are a promising area of cancer therapy. Immunomodulatory agents that promote these effects function via a wide variety of mechanisms, including upregulation of antigen presentation pathways. Here, we show that major histocompatibility class-I (MHC-I) genes are methylated in human breast cancers, suppressing their expression. Treatment of breast cancer cell lines with a next-generation hypomethylating agent, guadecitabine, upregulates MHC-I expression in response to interferon-γ. In murine tumor models of breast cancer, guadecitabine upregulates MHC-I in tumor cells promoting recruitment of CD8+ T cells to the microenvironment. Finally, we show that MHC-I genes are upregulated in breast cancer patients treated with hypomethylating agents. Thus, the immunomodulatory effects of hypomethylating agents likely involve upregulation of class-I antigen presentation to potentiate CD8+ T cell responses. These strategies may be useful to potentiate anti-tumor immunity and responses to checkpoint inhibition in immune-refractory breast cancers.  | 
        
| Year of Publication |    :  
                  2018 
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| Journal |    :  
                  Nature communications 
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| Volume |    :  
                  9 
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| Issue |    :  
                  1 
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| Number of Pages |    :  
                  248 
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| Date Published |    :  
                  2018 
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| URL |    :  
                  http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02630-w 
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| DOI |    :  
                  10.1038/s41467-017-02630-w 
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| Short Title |    :  
                  Nat Commun 
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