- Crome, Sarah Q;
- Nguyen, Linh T;
- Lopez-Verges, Sandra;
- Yang, SY Cindy;
- Martin, Bernard;
- Yam, Jennifer Y;
- Johnson, Dylan J;
- Nie, Jessica;
- Pniak, Michael;
- Yen, Pei Hua;
- Milea, Anca;
- Sowamber, Ramlogan;
- Katz, Sarah Rachel;
- Bernardini, Marcus Q;
- Clarke, Blaise A;
- Shaw, Patricia A;
- Lang, Philipp A;
- Berman, Hal K;
- Pugh, Trevor J;
- Lanier, Lewis L;
- Ohashi, Pamela S
Antitumor T cells are subject to multiple mechanisms of negative regulation. Recent findings that innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) regulate adaptive T cell responses led us to examine the regulatory potential of ILCs in the context of cancer. We identified a unique ILC population that inhibits tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) from high-grade serous tumors, defined their suppressive capacity in vitro, and performed a comprehensive analysis of their phenotype. Notably, the presence of this CD56+CD3- population in TIL cultures was associated with reduced T cell numbers, and further functional studies demonstrated that this population suppressed TIL expansion and altered TIL cytokine production. Transcriptome analysis and phenotypic characterization determined that regulatory CD56+CD3- cells exhibit low cytotoxic activity, produce IL-22, and have an expression profile that overlaps with those of natural killer (NK) cells and other ILCs. NKp46 was highly expressed by these cells, and addition of anti-NKp46 antibodies to TIL cultures abrogated the ability of these regulatory ILCs to suppress T cell expansion. Notably, the presence of these regulatory ILCs in TIL cultures corresponded with a striking reduction in the time to disease recurrence. These studies demonstrate that a previously uncharacterized ILC population regulates the activity and expansion of tumor-associated T cells.