The microbiome restrains melanoma bone growth by promoting intestinal NK and Th1 cells homing to bone

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Abstract

Bone metastases are frequent complications of malignant melanoma leading to reduced quality of life and significant morbidity. Regulation of immune cells by the gut microbiome influences cancer progression, but the role of the microbiome in tumor growth in bone is unknown. Using intracardiac or intratibial injections of B16-F10 melanoma cells in mice we showed that gut microbiome depletion by broad-spectrum antibiotics accelerated intraosseous tumor growth and osteolysis. Microbiome depletion blunted melanoma-induced expansion of intestinal natural killer (NK) cells and T helper 1 (Th1) cells and their migration from the gut to tumor bearing bones. Demonstrating the functional relevance of immune cell trafficking from the gut to the bone marrow (BM) in bone metastasis, blockade of S1P-mediated NK and Th1 cells intestinal egress, or inhibition of their CXCR3/CXCL9-mediated influx into the BM prevented expansion of BM NK and Th1 cells and accelerated tumor growth and osteolysis. Using a mouse model, this study revealed mechanisms of microbiota-mediated gut-bone crosstalk that are relevant to the immunological restraint of melanoma metastasis and tumor growth in bone. Microbiome modifications induced by antibiotics might have negative clinical consequences in melanoma patients.

Authors

Subhashis Pal, Daniel S. Perrien, Tetsuya Yumoto, Roberta Faccio, Andreea Stoica, Jonathan Adams, Craig M. Coopersmith, Rheinallt M. Jones, M. Neale Weitzmann, Roberto Pacifici