233 Human PD-L2 triggers a unique T cell inhibitory program through PD-1 engagement distinct from that of PD-L1

Background

PD-1/PD-L1 blockade is responsible for the majority of the success of cancer immunotherapy.¹ However, only 14% of patients eligible to receive checkpoint blockade achieve objected clinical responses.^{2 3} The reason for the failure of PD-L1 blockade may be attributed to the recently appreciated widespread expression of PD-L2 across human cancers and its immunosuppresive stromal cells.⁴ PD-L2 expression was shown to be as or more predictive of response to PD-1 blockade than PD-L14. PD-L2 traditionally was dismissed as functionally redundant to PD-L1 varying only in pattern of expression. We hypothesize that PD-L2 engages PD-1 to generate a distinct inhibitory signal from that of PD-L1, and antibody mediated blockade and depletion of PD-L2+ cells may promote anti-tumor immunity that is superior to PD-L1 blockade alone.

Methods

Cell based bioluminescent assay demonstrated the nature of regulation mediated by human PD-L2 through the PD-1 co-receptor. RNA-sequencing identified key differences in the signaling pathways generated in Jurkat T cells by PD-1 binding to PD-L1 or PD-L2. Multidimensional flow cytometry determined the differential effects of PD-L1 and PD-L2 on human T cell proliferation and effector function. Western blot elucidated the temporal kinetics of inhibition mediated by PD-L1 and PD-L2. Survival studies in murine syngeneic lymphoma model evaluated the efficacy of antibody mediated blockade and depletion of PD-L2+ cells.

Results

We validated that human PD-L2, unlike murine PD-L2, generates a purely co-inhibitory signal in human T cells, albeit with a reduced inhibitory potential relative to PD-L1. We discovered significant differences in downstream T cell signaling pathways generated by PD-L1 versus PD-L2 through PD-1 engagement. Human PD-L1 and PD-L2 differentially modulated T cell effector function and proliferation with PD-L2 preferentially arresting T cells in S-phase of cell cycle. PD-L1 and PD-L2 also differed in the temporal kinetics of dephosphorylation of the membrane proximal proteins in the TCR-CD3 signaling complex. We observed that combination blockade of PD-L1 and PD-L2 improves on blockade of PD-L1 alone resulting in increased production of IL-2 and IFNγ in primary human mixed lymphocyte reactions. Our data in a syngeneic murine model of EL4 showed that effector-function capable PD-L2 blocking antibodies are therapeutically superior to PD-L1 or PD-L2 blockade alone.

Conclusions

We are the first to report on T cell immunoregulatory functions of PD-L2 which are distinct from those of PD-L1, and demonstrate that the more tumor-selective expression pattern of PD-L2 relative to PD-L1 provides a therapeutic advantage to effector-function capable PD-L2 antibodies.

Acknowledgements

AS was supported by the CPRIT Research Training Grant(RP170067)

References

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