Abstract
Background
Enhancing the response rate of immunotherapy will aid in the success of cancer treatment. Here, we aimed to explore the combined effect of immunogenic radiotherapy with anti-PD-L1 treatment in immunotherapy-resistant HNSCC mouse models.
Methods
The SCC7 and 4MOSC2 cell lines were irradiated in vitro. SCC7-bearing mice were treated with hypofractionated or single-dose radiotherapy followed by anti-PD-L1 therapy. The myeloid-derived suppressive cells (MDSCs) were depleted using an anti-Gr-1 antibody. Human samples were collected to evaluate the immune cell populations and ICD markers.
Results
Irradiation increased the release of immunogenic cell death (ICD) markers (calreticulin, HMGB1 and ATP) in SCC7 and 4MOSC2 in a dose-dependent manner. The supernatant from irradiated cells upregulated the expression of PD-L1 in MDSCs. Mice treated with hypofractionated but not single-dose radiotherapy were resistant to tumour rechallenge by triggering ICD, when combined with anti-PD-L1 treatment. The therapeutic efficacy of combination treatment partially relies on MDSCs. The high expression of ICD markers was associated with activation of adaptive immune responses and a positive prognosis in HNSCC patients.
Conclusion
These results present a translatable method to substantially improve the antitumor immune response by combining PD-L1 blockade with immunogenic hypofractionated radiotherapy in HNSCC.

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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We want to thank Shuyan Liang and Zhixin Qiu from Wuhan Biobank Co. Ltd., Hubei, China for their excellent technical assistance on flow cytometry and cells isolation. And we also want to thank Ji Chen, Yan-Peng Ding and Yan Qi from Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University and Ying Liu and Jin Jing from the Core Facility of Medical Research Institute at Wuhan University for their kind guidance on radiotherapy experiments.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NFSC): 82103333, 82072996, 81874131 and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2042021kf0174, 2042021kf0216).
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The authors contributed in the following way: designed and performed the research: LM; wrote the manuscripts: LM, HY and ZS; data analysis: LM, JZ, YX, QY, SY, SW, ZW and HX; performed experiments: LM, JZ, YX, QY, SY, SW, ZW and HX; supervised the research: HY and ZS.
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All animal experiments in this study were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of Wuhan University (2019038, 2019108, 2019161, 20220283). All experiments performed using the patients’ samples were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Medical Ethics Committee of School and Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University (2012LUNSHENZI46, 2018LUNSHENZIA28), and informed consent was obtained from all patients. All studies were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
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Mao, L., Zhou, JJ., Xiao, Y. et al. Immunogenic hypofractionated radiotherapy sensitising head and neck squamous cell carcinoma to anti-PD-L1 therapy in MDSC-dependent manner. Br J Cancer 128, 2126–2139 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-023-02230-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-023-02230-0