Depleting the action of EZH2 through PI3K-mTOR inhibition to overcome metastasis and immunotherapy resistance in triple-negative breast cancer

Abstract

Almost half of patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) develop distant metastases, heralding unfavorable outcomes. Here we provide novel insights into the contribution of the PI3K-mTOR pathway to the TNBC phenotypes that promote growth, migration, metastasis, and therapy resistance. Specifically, we demonstrate that dual targeting of PI3K and mTOR but not PI3K alone inhibits cancer cell proliferation and migration in vitro. Dual PI3K-mTOR inhibition with paxalisib not only promotes a favorable mesenchymal to epithelial phenotype but also inhibits signatures associated with MICs, including the highly aggressive CSC phenotype, persister cancer cell phenotype (p65, FOXQ1, NRF2, NNMT), and a cancer drug resistance signature (ABCB5, SNAIL, ALDH1). In vivo, paxalisib overcomes immunotherapy resistance to reduce primary tumor burden, circulating tumor cells, and direct and indirect indicators of metastasis with a favorable toxicity profile. Gene expression and spatial analyses show that paxalisib profoundly affects the immune microenvironment in tumors, reducing adaptive immune phenotypes associated with immunotherapy resistance (exhausted T cells, Tregs) and pro-tumor innate immune populations such as mast cells. PI3K-mTOR blockade acts upstream of EZH2, impacting both the classical repressive catalytic p85β-EZH2-H27ME3 and active EZH2-NFκB pathways. Our data suggest that dual targeting of the PI3K-mTOR pathway disrupts both the catalytic and non-catalytic axes of EZH2 to inhibit metastasis and enhance cancer immune visibility, potentially increasing the utility of immunotherapy in resistant individuals.