IL15 agonists overcome the immunosuppressive effects of MEK inhibitors

Abstract

Many signal transduction inhibitors are being developed for cancer therapy target pathways that are also important for the proper function of antitumor lymphocytes, possibly weakening their therapeutic effects. Here we show that most inhibitors targeting multiple signaling pathways have especially strong negative effects on T-cell activation at their active doses on cancer cells. In particular, we found that recently approved MEK inhibitors displayed potent suppressive effects on T cells in vitro. However, these effects could be attenuated by certain cytokines that can be administered to cancer patients. Among them, clinically available IL15 superagonists, which can activate PI3K selectively in T lymphocytes, synergized with MEK inhibitors in vivo to elicit potent and durable antitumor responses, including by a vaccine-like effect that generated resistance to tumor rechallenge. Our work identifies a clinically actionable approach to overcome the T-cell-suppressive effects of MEK inhibitors and illustrates how to reconcile the deficiencies of signal transduction inhibitors, which impede desired immunologic effects in vivo.