Dysfunctional Antibodies in the Tumor Microenvironment Associate with Impaired Anticancer Immunity

Studies have demonstrated that cancer-associated matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) can generate single peptide bond cleavages in the hinge region of immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1). This study investigated the cleavage of endogenous IgGs by MMPs in the tumor microenvironment and the consequences of the IgG hinge cleavage for humoral immunity.

We investigated the occurrence of single peptide bond cleaved IgGs (scIgG) in tumor tissues and plasma samples collected from a cohort of breast cancer patients (n = 60). Samples from healthy people (n = 20) were used as the control. Antibody hinge cleavage was detected by multiple assays, including IHC, ELISA, and flow cytometry. A correlation analysis was conducted between scIgG levels and patient clinical parameters.

Levels of scIgGs in tumors were significantly higher than in normal tissues. In addition, scIgG levels in tumors were enriched compared with that in the plasma of the same patients. The appearance of scIgGs in tumor tissues was associated with altered host IgG content and decreased IgG1. Increased tumor scIgGs were found to be positively correlated with adverse clinical factors, such as elevated tumor-associated macrophages, increased expression of MMP9 and other MMPs, and local metastasis to axillary lymph nodes.

The study contributes to mounting evidence for the presence of hinge-cleaved antibodies with reduced Fc immune effector function in the tumor microenvironment. The results highlight a link between tumor scIgGs and poor patient outcomes, and reveal a component of compromised humoral immunity within tumors that could point to new immunotherapeutic strategies to rescue host immunity.