CELL INTELLIGENCE · 肿瘤细胞治疗研究

Despite promising development as emerging "off-the-shelf" therapeutics against cancer, natural killer (NK) cells still faced considerable challenges in the solid tumor microenvironment (TME), including poor penetrance and immuno-suppression. Here, we employ spatial and single-cell transcriptomics to reveal a role for Nur77 in NK cell-mediated immunity against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Orthogonal analysis of human and mouse HCC tumors indicate that the expression of NR4A1, encoding Nur77, is associated with NK cell proliferation, activation of the immunostimulatory AP-1 gene regulons, and better disease-free survival in HCC. Conditional ablation of Nr4a1 in NK cells perturbs their homeostasis and accelerates tumor progression in multiple tumor models. Conversely, the agonistic activation of Nur77 in NK cells ex-vivo or in-vivo enhances their anti-tumor functions. Mechanistically, downstream functional assays confirm that Nur77 activation attenuates CD36 expression in NK cells and confers resistance against oxLDL-mediated immunosuppression in the TME. Collectively, our findings highlight the potential of harnessing Nur77 agonism in improving NK cell-based immunotherapy against HCC.