PD-1 blockade-unresponsive human tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells are marked by loss of CD28 expression and rescued by IL-15

Abstract

Blockade of programmed death-1 (PD-1) reinvigorates exhausted CD8⁺ T cells, resulting in tumor regression in cancer patients. Recently, reinvigoration of exhausted CD8⁺ T cells following PD-1 blockade was shown to be CD28-dependent in mouse models. Herein, we examined the role of CD28 in anti-PD-1 antibody-induced human T cell reinvigoration using tumor-infiltrating CD8⁺ T cells (CD8⁺ TILs) obtained from non-small-cell lung cancer patients. Single-cell analysis demonstrated a distinct expression pattern of CD28 between mouse and human CD8⁺ TILs. Furthermore, we found that human CD28⁺CD8⁺ but not CD28^-CD8⁺ TILs responded to PD-1 blockade irrespective of B7/CD28 blockade, indicating that CD28 costimulation in human CD8⁺ TILs is dispensable for PD-1 blockade-induced reinvigoration and that loss of CD28 expression serves as a marker of anti-PD-1 antibody-unresponsive CD8⁺ TILs. Transcriptionally and phenotypically, PD-1 blockade-unresponsive human CD28^-PD-1⁺CD8⁺ TILs exhibited characteristics of terminally exhausted CD8⁺ T cells with low TCF1 expression. Notably, CD28^-PD-1⁺CD8⁺ TILs had preserved machinery to respond to IL-15, and IL-15 treatment enhanced the proliferation of CD28^-PD-1⁺CD8⁺ TILs as well as CD28⁺PD-1⁺CD8⁺ TILs. Taken together, these results show that loss of CD28 expression is a marker of PD-1 blockade-unresponsive human CD8⁺ TILs with a TCF1^- signature and provide mechanistic insights into combining IL-15 with anti-PD-1 antibodies.