Interleukin 2 and interleukin 10 function synergistically to promote CD8+ T cell cytotoxicity, which is suppressed by regulatory T cells in breast cancer

The precise role of interleukin (IL)-10 in breast cancer is not clear. Previous studies suggested a tumor-promoting role of IL-10 in breast cancer, whereas recent discoveries that IL-10 activated and expanded tumor-resident CD8+ T cells challenged the traditional view. Here, we investigated the role of IL-10 in HLA-A2-positive breast cancer patients with Grade III, Stage IIA or IIB in-situ and invasive ductal carcinoma, and compared it with that of IL-2, the canonical CD8+ T cell growth factor. We first observed that breast cancer patients presented higher serum levels of IL-2 and IL-10 than healthy controls. Upon prolonged TCR stimulation, peripheral blood CD8+ T cells from breast cancer patients tended to undergo apoptosis, which could be prevented by the addition of IL-2 and/or IL-10. The cytotoxicity of TCR-activated CD8+ T cells was also enhanced by exogenous IL-2 and/or IL-10. Interestingly, IL-2 and IL-10 demonstrated synergistic effects, since the enhancement in CD8+ T cell function when both cytokines were added was greater than the sum of the improvements mediated by each individual cytokine. IL-10 by itself could not promote the proliferation of CD8+ T cells but could significantly enhance IL-2-mediated promotion of CD8+ T cell proliferation. In addition, the cytotoxicity of tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells in breast tumor was elevated when both IL-2 and IL-10 were present but not when either one was absent. This synergistic effect was stopped by CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (Treg), which depleted IL-2 in a cell number-dependent manner. Together, these results demonstrated that IL-2 and IL-10 could work synergistically to improve the survival, proliferation, and cytotoxicity of activated CD8+ T cells, an effect suppressible by CD4+CD25+ Treg cells.