AUTHOR=Liu Qiao , Wang Lisha , Lin Huayu , Wang Zhiming , Wu Jialin , Guo Junyi , Wen Shuqiong , Ran Ling , Yue Zhengliang , Su Xingxing , Wu Qing , Tang Jianfang , Li Zhirong , Hu Li , Xu Lifan , Ye Lilin , Huang Qizhao TITLE=Tumor-Specific CD4+ T Cells Restrain Established Metastatic Melanoma by Developing Into Cytotoxic CD4– T Cells JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=13 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.875718 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2022.875718 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=

Cytotoxic CD8+ T cells are the main focus of efforts to understand anti-tumor immunity and immunotherapy. The adoptive transfer of tumor-reactive cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes expanded and differentiated in vitro has long been considered the primary strategy in adaptive anti-tumor immunity, however, the majority of the transferred tumor antigen-specific CD8+ T cells differentiated into CD39+CD69+ exhausted progenies, limiting its effects in repressing tumor growth. Contrarily, less attention has been addressed to the role of CD4+ T cells during tumorigenesis. Using a mouse model of metastatic melanoma, we found that transferring tumor-specific CD4+ T cells into recipients induces substantial regression of the established metastatic tumors. Notably, in vitro activated CD4+ T cells developed into cytotoxic CD4- T cells in vivo and get exhausted gradually. The blockade of PD-L1 signaling resulted in an expansion of tumor specific CD4+ T cells, which could better control the established metastatic melanoma. Moreover, the tumor-specific memory CD4+ T cell can prevent mice from tumor metastasis, and the tumor-specific effector CD4+ T cells can also mitigate the established metastatic tumor. Overall, our findings suggest a novel mechanism of CD4+ T cells in curtailing tumor metastasis and confirm their therapeutic role in combination with PD-L1 blockade in cancer immunotherapy. Hence, a better understanding of cytotoxic CD4- T cell-mediated tumor regression could provide an alternative choice for patients exhibiting suboptimal or no response to CD8+ T cell-based immunotherapies.