Giant congenital naevi are pigmented childhood lesions that frequently lead to melanoma, the most aggressive skin cancer. The mechanisms underlying this malignancy are largely unknown, and there are no effective therapies. Here we describe a mouse model for giant congenital naevi and show that naevi and melanoma prominently express Sox10, a transcription factor crucial for the formation of melanocytes from the neural crest. Strikingly, Sox10 haploinsufficiency counteracts Nras(Q61K)-driven congenital naevus and melanoma formation without affecting the physiological functions of neural crest derivatives in the skin. Moreover, Sox10 is also crucial for the maintenance of neoplastic cells in vivo. In human patients, virtually all congenital naevi and melanomas are SOX10 positive. Furthermore, SOX10 silencing in human melanoma cells suppresses neural crest stem cell properties, counteracts proliferation and cell survival, and completely abolishes in vivo tumour formation. Thus, SOX10 represents a promising target for the treatment of congenital naevi and melanoma in human patients.

Increased activity of the epigenetic modifier EZH2 has been associated with different cancers. However, evidence for a functional role of EZH2 in tumorigenesis in vivo remains poor, in particular in metastasizing solid cancers. Here we reveal central roles of EZH2 in promoting growth and metastasis of cutaneous melanoma. In a melanoma mouse model, conditional Ezh2 ablation as much as treatment with the preclinical EZH2 inhibitor GSK503 stabilizes the disease through inhibition of growth and virtually abolishes metastases formation without affecting normal melanocyte biology. Comparably, in human melanoma cells, EZH2 inactivation impairs proliferation and invasiveness, accompanied by re-expression of tumour suppressors connected to increased patient survival. These EZH2 target genes suppress either melanoma growth or metastasis in vivo, revealing the dual function of EZH2 in promoting tumour progression. Thus, EZH2-mediated epigenetic repression is highly relevant especially during advanced melanoma progression, which makes EZH2 a promising target for novel melanoma therapies.

Immunotherapy and particularly immune checkpoint inhibitors have resulted in remarkable clinical responses in patients with immunogenic tumors, although most cancers develop resistance to immunotherapy. The molecular mechanisms of tumor resistance to immunotherapy remain poorly understood. We now show that induction of the histone methyltransferase Ezh2 controls several tumor cell-intrinsic and extrinsic resistance mechanisms. Notably, T cell infiltration selectively correlated with high EZH2-PRC2 complex activity in human skin cutaneous melanoma. During anti-CTLA-4 or IL-2 immunotherapy in mice, intratumoral tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) production and T cell accumulation resulted in increased Ezh2 expression in melanoma cells, which in turn silenced their own immunogenicity and antigen presentation. Ezh2 inactivation reversed this resistance and synergized with anti-CTLA-4 and IL-2 immunotherapy to suppress melanoma growth. These anti-tumor effects depended on intratumorally accumulating interferon-γ (IFN-γ)-producing PD-1 CD8 T cells and PD-L1 downregulation on melanoma cells. Hence, Ezh2 serves as a molecular switch controlling melanoma escape during T cell-targeting immunotherapies.

Our results indicate that recurrent UTIs have a significant impact on QoL of women in Europe.

Interleukin-2 (IL-2) immunotherapy is an attractive approach in treating advanced cancer. However, by binding to its IL-2 receptor α (CD25) subunit, IL-2 exerts unwanted effects, including stimulation of immunosuppressive regulatory T cells (T) and contribution to vascular leak syndrome. We used a rational approach to develop a monoclonal antibody to human IL-2, termed NARA1, which acts as a high-affinity CD25 mimic, thereby minimizing association of IL-2 with CD25. The structure of the IL-2-NARA1 complex revealed that NARA1 occupies the CD25 epitope of IL-2 and precisely overlaps with CD25. Association of NARA1 with IL-2 occurs with 10-fold higher affinity compared to CD25 and forms IL-2/NARA1 complexes, which, in vivo, preferentially stimulate CD8 T cells while disfavoring CD25 T and improving the benefit-to-adverse effect ratio of IL-2. In two transplantable and one spontaneous metastatic melanoma model, IL-2/NARA1 complex immunotherapy resulted in efficient expansion of tumor-specific and polyclonal CD8 T cells. These CD8 T cells showed robust interferon-γ production and expressed low levels of exhaustion markers programmed cell death protein-1, lymphocyte activation gene-3, and T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-3. These effects resulted in potent anticancer immune responses and prolonged survival in the tumor models. Collectively, our data demonstrate that NARA1 acts as a CD25-mimobody that confers selectivity and increased potency to IL-2 and warrant further assessment of NARA1 as a therapeutic.