Clinical significance of CD73 in triple-negative breast cancer: multiplex analysis of a phase III clinical trial.

Background: CD73 is an ecto-enzyme that promotes tumor immune escape through the production of immunosuppressive extracellular adenosine in the tumor microenvironment. Several CD73 inhibitors and adenosine receptor antagonists are being evaluated in phase I clinical trials. Patients and methods: Full-face sections from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded primary breast tumors from 122 samples of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) from the BIG 02-98 adjuvant phase III clinical trial were included in our analysis. Using multiplex immunofluorescence and image analysis, we assessed CD73 protein expression on tumor cells, tumor-infiltrating leukocytes and stromal cells. We investigated the associations between CD73 protein expression with disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS) and the extent of tumor immune infiltration. Results: Our results demonstrated that high levels of CD73 expression on epithelial tumor cells were significantly associated with reduced DFS, OS and negatively correlated with tumor immune infiltration (Spearman's R= -0.50, P < 0.0001). Patients with high levels of CD73 and low levels of tumor-infiltrating leukocytes had the worse clinical outcome. Conclusions: Taken together, our study provides further support that CD73 expression is associated with a poor prognosis and reduced anti-tumor immunity in human TNBC and that targeting CD73 could be a promising strategy to reprogram the tumor microenvironment in this BC subtype.

The protein tyrosine phosphatase DEP-1/PTPRJ promotes breast cancer cell invasion and metastasis.

DEP-1/PTPRJ is a receptor-like protein tyrosine phosphatase mainly known for its antiproliferative and tumor-suppressive functions. Many identified substrates are growth factor receptors, and DEP-1 is deleted and/or mutated in human cancers including that of the breast. However, DEP-1 was also identified as a promoter of Src activation and proinvasive functions in the endothelium, suggesting it could perhaps mediate breast cancer invasiveness that is likewise driven by Src family kinases. We show here that DEP-1 expression was greater in highly invasive breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231, Hs578T, BT-549) than in the less invasive or untransformed cell lines tested (MCF-7, T47D, SK-BR3 and MCF10A). DEP-1 silencing experiments in invasive cells demonstrated that moderately expressed and catalytically active DEP-1 was required, in collaboration with basal epidermal growth factor receptor activity, for Src activation and the phosphorylation of its substrate Cortactin, and for their colocalization at the cell's leading edge. This correlated with an increased number of cell protrusions, and an enhanced capacity of the cells to migrate and invade. Similarly, moderate overexpression of DEP-1 in the low-invasive cells resulted in the promotion of their invasiveness in an Src-dependent manner. Consistent with these data, the expression of endogenous DEP-1 was elevated in a bone metastatic cell line derived from MDA-MB-231 cells, and promoted increased Src Y418 and Cortactin Y421 phosphorylation, as well as pro-MMP9 secretion and Matrigel invasion. Importantly, the silencing of DEP-1 in MDA-MB-231 cells greatly decreased their ability to metastasize, despite having no effect on tumor growth or angiogenesis. Hence, we found that moderate expression of DEP-1 was associated with the increased relapse and decreased survival of breast cancer patients. These results therefore identify a new and unsuspected role for DEP-1 as a mediator of an invasive cell program implicating Src activation and the promotion of breast cancer progression.

Expression of CD39 by human peripheral blood CD4+ CD25+ T cells denotes a regulatory memory phenotype.

We have shown that CD39 and CD73 are coexpressed on the surface of murine CD4+ Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Treg) and generate extracellular adenosine, contributing to Treg immunosuppressive activity. We now describe that CD39, independently of CD73, is expressed by a subset of blood-derived human CD4+ CD25+ CD127lo Treg, defined by robust expression of Foxp3. A further distinct population of CD4+ CD39+ T lymphocytes can be identified, which do not express CD25 and FoxP3 and exhibit the memory effector cellular phenotype. Differential expression of CD25 and CD39 on circulating CD4+ T cells distinguishes between Treg and pathogenic cellular populations that secrete proinflammatory cytokines such as IFNγ and IL-17. These latter cell populations are increased, with a concomitant decrease in the CD4+ CD25+ CD39+ Tregs, in the peripheral blood of patients with renal allograft rejection. We conclude that the ectonucleotidase CD39 is a useful and dynamic lymphocytes surface marker that can be used to identify different peripheral blood T cell-populations to allow tracking of these in health and disease, as in renal allograft rejection.