NDRG2 Expression in Breast Cancer Cells Downregulates PD-L1 Expression and Restores T Cell Proliferation in Tumor-Coculture

Abstract

(1) Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of NDRG2 expression in regulating PD-L1 or PD-L2 on malignant breast cancer cells. (2) Methods: Overexpression and knockdown of the NDRG2 gene in human and mouse cancer cells were applied and quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot analysis were performed. T cell proliferation and TCGA analysis were conducted to validate negative correlation of the PD-L1 expression with the NDRG2 expression. (3) Results: We found that NDRG2 overexpression inhibits PD-L1 expression in human breast cancer cells through NF-κB signaling. NDRG2 overexpression in 4T1 mouse breast cancer cells followed by PD-L1 downregulation could block the suppressive activity of cancer cells on T cell proliferation and knockdown of NDRG2 expression enhanced the expression of PD-L1, leading to the inhibition of T cell proliferation by tumor cell coculture. Finally, we confirmed from TCGA data that PD-L1 expression in basal and triple-negative breast cancer patients was negatively correlated with the expression of NDRG2. Intriguingly, linear regression analysis using TNBC cell lines showed that the PD-L1 level was negatively associated with the NDRG2 expression level. (4) Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that NDRG2 expression is instrumental in suppressing PD-L1 expression and restoring PD-L1-inhibited T cell proliferation activity in TNBC cells.

Keywords

• immune checkpoint
• PD-L1
• NDRG2
• breast cancer
• T cell proliferation
• TCGA data