Cancer-promoting proteins may make tumors easier to spot... but also help them evade immune attack
The immune system may recognize a cancer cell and still fail to destroy it. In a recent study, researchers at Hiroshima University and their international collaborators found that hyperactive YAP and TAZ (YAP/TAZ), two cancer-promoting proteins, were associated with genomic instability that may make cancer cells more recognizable to the immune system, while also increasing PD-L2, which helps the…
In a recent study, researchers from Hiroshima University and their international partners discovered a potential link between certain cancer-promoting proteins and a cancer cell's ability to evade the immune system. These proteins, YAP and TAZ, when hyperactive, have been associated with genomic instability, which may make tumors more recognizable to the immune system.
However, they also increase the expression of PD-L2, a protein that helps suppress T-cell attacks. This combination of factors could impact the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy, which aims to block the immune system's inhibitory signals. The study suggests that if the genomic instability caused by YAP/TAZ activity helps tumors stand out to the immune system, while PD-L2 suppresses T cells, blocking PD-L2 could make tumors more vulnerable to immune attack.
This finding may explain why tumors with specific alterations in the Hippo signaling pathway, which regulates YAP/TAZ activity, have shown better outcomes after ICI therapy in a separate analysis of 1,662 patients. However, the researchers caution that these findings need further validation through independent studies to determine if Hippo pathway alterations and YAP/TAZ hyperactivation can serve as reliable prognostic factors for patients undergoing ICI therapy.
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