清华大学廖学斌课题组与中山大学魏来课题组合作发现，造血祖细胞激酶1 (HPK1)介导T细胞功能障碍，并且是T细胞免疫疗法的药物靶标。相关论文于2020年8月28日在线发表在《癌细胞》杂志上。

Title: Hematopoietic Progenitor Kinase1 (HPK1) Mediates T Cell Dysfunction and Is a Druggable Target for T Cell-Based Immunotherapies

Author: Jingwen Si, Xiangjun Shi, Shuhao Sun, Bin Zou, Yaopeng Li, Dongjie An, Xingyu Lin, Yan Gao, Fei Long, Bo Pang, Xing Liu, Tian Liu, Wenna Chi, Ligong Chen, Dimiter S. Dimitrov, Yan Sun, Xinru Du, Wen Yin, Guangxun Gao, Junxia Min, Lai Wei, Xuebin Liao

Issue&Volume: 2020-08-28

Abstract: Ameliorating T cell exhaustion and enhancing effector function are promising strategiesfor the improvement of immunotherapies. Here, we show that the HPK1-NFκB-Blimp1 axismediates T cell dysfunction. High expression of MAP4K1 (which encodes HPK1) correlates with increased T cell exhaustion and with worse patientsurvival in several cancer types. In MAP4K1KO mice, tumors grow slower than in wild-type mice and infiltrating T cells are lessexhausted and more active and proliferative. We further show that genetic depletion,pharmacological inhibition, or proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC)-mediated degradationof HPK1 improves the efficacy of CAR-T cell-based immunotherapies in diverse preclinicalmouse models of hematological and solid tumors. These strategies are more effectivethan genetically depleting PD-1 in CAR-T cells. Thus, we demonstrate that HPK1 isa mediator of T cell dysfunction and an attractive druggable target to improve immunetherapy responses.

DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2020.08.001

Source: https://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/fulltext/S1535-6108(20)30375-5