PVR and Nectin-2 blockade trigger macrophage anti-tumor functions, promote immune cell recruitment and prevent cervical tumor growth

Abstract Despite vaccination, cervical tumors remain a health issue and require treatment improvement. In 2023, Pembrolizumab, an anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), was introduced in the case of advanced or metastatic cervical tumors. This treatment significantly increased progression free survival from 20% to 50%. However, some patients remain resistant to anti-PD-1 treatment, which calls for new targets. In our study, we highlighted poliovirus receptor (PVR) and Nectin-2 as potential ICB targets. Indeed, PVR and Nectin-2 are TIGIT ligands, an immunomodulatory checkpoint expressed by regulatory T cells or exhausted T cells. The binding of PVR or Nectin-2 to TIGIT maintains the immunosuppressive signal in the immune cells allowing tumor progression. Furthermore, we observed that PVR and Nectin-2 were highly expressed on tumor cells and tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) accross the different histological subsets of cervical tumors. Therefore, we hypothesized that using anti-PVR and anti-Nectin-2 anti-bodies would lift immunosuppression in cervical tumors. To that end, we used CyTOF to asses precise immunophenotyping of the targets ex vivo , high throughput confocal microscopy to assess phagocytosis, monocyte derived macrophages (MDM) coupled with 3D cell culture models to assess the impact of our treatment on MDM and TAM repolarization and tumor growth. We could demonstrate that our treatment repolarized macrophages towards an inflammatory profile and that this was followed by a reactivation of macrophage cytotoxic function such as phagocytosis. We also demonstrated that anti-PVR and Nectin-2 treatment allowed the control of tumor growth in 2D and 3D cell culture models. We could also develop a pre-clinical model of autologous cell culture from cervical cancer patients. Using the MIVO technology, which combine organotypic culture and fluidics, we could assess peripheral blood mononuclear cells recruitment towards tumor cells in the presence or absence of anti-PVR and anti-Nectin-2. In conclusion we could demonstrate that targeting macrophages via the PVR/Nectin-2 couple reactivates cervical tumor growth control and improves immune cell recruitment.