Fusobacterium nucleatum facilitates anti-PD-1 therapy in microsatellite stable colorectal cancer

Abstract

Microsatellite stable (MSS) colorectal cancers (CRCs) are often resistant to anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1) therapy. Here, we show that a CRC pathogen, Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn), paradoxically sensitizes MSS CRC to anti-PD-1. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from patients with Fn-high MSS CRC to germ-free mice bearing MSS CRC confers sensitivity to anti-PD-1 compared to FMT from Fn-low counterparts. Single Fn administration also potentiates anti-PD-1 efficacy in murine allografts and CD34⁺-humanized mice bearing MSS CRC. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that intratumoral Fn generates abundant butyric acid, which inhibits histone deacetylase (HDAC) 3/8 in CD8⁺ T cells, inducing Tbx21 promoter H3K27 acetylation and expression. TBX21 transcriptionally represses PD-1, alleviating CD8⁺ T cell exhaustion and promoting effector function. Supporting this notion, knockout of a butyric acid-producing gene in Fn abolishes its anti-PD-1 boosting effect. In patients with MSS CRC, high intratumoral Fn predicts favorable response to anti-PD-1 therapy, indicating Fn as a potential biomarker of immunotherapy response in MSS CRC.

Keywords: Fusobacterium nucleatum; PD-1; anti-PD-1 immunotherapy; autologous T cell and organoid co-culture system; butyric acid; butyric acid-HDAC3/8-H3K27ac-TBX21-PD-1 signaling pathway; germ-free immunohumanized mice; specific pathogen-free immunohumanized mice.