Anticancer Chemotherapy-Induced Intratumoral Recruitment and Differentiation of Antigen-Presenting Cells

SummaryThe therapeutic efficacy of anthracyclines relies on antitumor immune responses elicited by dying cancer cells. How chemotherapy-induced cell death leads to efficient antigen presentation to T cells, however, remains a conundrum. We found that intratumoral CD11c+CD11b+Ly6Chi cells, which displayed some characteristics of inflammatory dendritic cells and included granulomonocytic precursors, were crucial for anthracycline-induced anticancer immune responses. ATP released by dying cancer cells recruited myeloid cells into tumors and stimulated the local differentiation of CD11c+CD11b+Ly6Chi cells. Such cells efficiently engulfed tumor antigens in situ and presented them to T lymphocytes, thus vaccinating mice, upon adoptive transfer, against a challenge with cancer cells. Manipulations preventing tumor infiltration by CD11c+CD11b+Ly6Chi cells, such as the local overexpression of ectonucleotidases, the blockade of purinergic receptors, or the neutralization of CD11b, abolished the immune system-dependent antitumor activity of anthracyclines. Our results identify a subset of tumor-infiltrating leukocytes as therapy-relevant antigen-presenting cells.

► Anthracyclines induce tumor infiltration by CD11c+CD11b+Ly6Chi DC-like cells
► DC-like cell infiltration requires the release of ATP by dying tumor cells in vivo
► DC-like cells can present tumor antigens to T cells and vaccinate mice against cancer
► DC-like cells contain myeloid precursors and ATP favors their differentiation to DCs