Targeting extracellular matrix deposition from tumour cells reactivates T cell infiltration and anti-PD1 response in immune-excluded triple-negative breast cancer

preprint OA: gold CC-BY-4.0
📄 Open PDF Full text JSON View at publisher

Abstract

Abstract A growing body of evidence supports that targeting the tumour extracellular matrix (ECM) in solid cancers holds great promises to reactivate T cell migration in immune-excluded patients. By matrisome profiling of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients, we identified two core ECM proteins enriched in fibrotic immune-excluded tumours and associated with reduced CD8+ T cell stromal infiltration, versican (VCAN) and fibronectin (FN1). Both cancer-associated fibroblasts and aggressive cancer cell lines were found to deposit these two proteins in vitro, conferring resistance to T-cell-mediating cytotoxicity. Characterisation of in vivo murine breast cancer models 4T1 and EMT6 revealed significant differences in tumour ECM deposition and immune cell composition. Accordingly, targeting Fn1 and Vcan in both models induced opposite effects on tumour growth. While it appeared unfavourable in inflamed non fibrotic tumours, deletion of Fn1 in cancer cells was beneficial in immune-excluded tumours by promoting TCF7+ T cells and restoring anti-PD1 response.
Full text 16,661 characters · extracted from preprint-html · click to expand
Targeting extracellular matrix deposition from tumour cells reactivates T cell infiltration and anti-PD1 response in immune-excluded triple-negative breast cancer | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Targeting extracellular matrix deposition from tumour cells reactivates T cell infiltration and anti-PD1 response in immune-excluded triple-negative breast cancer Oliver Pearce, Valentine Gauthier, Eleanor Tyler, Ying Liu, Eleni Maniati, and 15 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8418969/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract A growing body of evidence supports that targeting the tumour extracellular matrix (ECM) in solid cancers holds great promises to reactivate T cell migration in immune-excluded patients. By matrisome profiling of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients, we identified two core ECM proteins enriched in fibrotic immune-excluded tumours and associated with reduced CD8+ T cell stromal infiltration, versican (VCAN) and fibronectin (FN1). Both cancer-associated fibroblasts and aggressive cancer cell lines were found to deposit these two proteins in vitro, conferring resistance to T-cell-mediating cytotoxicity. Characterisation of in vivo murine breast cancer models 4T1 and EMT6 revealed significant differences in tumour ECM deposition and immune cell composition. Accordingly, targeting Fn1 and Vcan in both models induced opposite effects on tumour growth. While it appeared unfavourable in inflamed non fibrotic tumours, deletion of Fn1 in cancer cells was beneficial in immune-excluded tumours by promoting TCF7+ T cells and restoring anti-PD1 response. Biological sciences/Cancer/Cancer microenvironment Biological sciences/Immunology/Tumour immunology Biological sciences/Molecular biology/Proteomics Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files Gauthieretal.Supplementals.xlsx Supplementary Tables GauthieretalSupplementalFigures.pdf Extended Data Figures Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8418969","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":571078232,"identity":"0c7e29e5-224f-4f7d-9214-323876c0b1a2","order_by":0,"name":"Oliver Pearce","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAzUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDADfhDxAMxkI1KLZAOQSCBJi8EBYrXwM/AefPBzj52c8fHsNIkEBjt5Bom0BALu4Us27HmWbGx25u02oJZkwwaJtAME3MNjJsFz4EDithu5IC3MCQwS6Q2EtJj//HPgQP3mGWAt9URpMWMG2pJgIAHWchiohYDDJJv5kqVlDiQbzjjzdrNFgsFxwzaeZwl4tfCz9x78+OaAnTx/e+7GGx8qquX52dMM8GphYOaBsUBmGxAVkShaRsEoGAWjYBRgAQBl30A4mgXhnQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3953-1629","institution":"Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Oliver","middleName":"","lastName":"Pearce","suffix":""},{"id":571078233,"identity":"7e070752-fa7d-4868-810f-6e5c4dd43f87","order_by":1,"name":"Valentine Gauthier","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Valentine","middleName":"","lastName":"Gauthier","suffix":""},{"id":571078234,"identity":"cfa1b671-0b01-4cd8-8ef0-3399a6a5d611","order_by":2,"name":"Eleanor Tyler","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8945-4823","institution":"Queen Mary University of London","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Eleanor","middleName":"","lastName":"Tyler","suffix":""},{"id":571078235,"identity":"23ead28c-e578-4f3e-86a1-32cadf564069","order_by":3,"name":"Ying Liu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ying","middleName":"","lastName":"Liu","suffix":""},{"id":571078236,"identity":"681d13fc-07af-48fe-9b91-fcf486680d1a","order_by":4,"name":"Eleni Maniati","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6993-9890","institution":"Queen Mary University of London","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Eleni","middleName":"","lastName":"Maniati","suffix":""},{"id":571078237,"identity":"564e5cb9-3ab9-48b3-9c46-6fab46034a96","order_by":5,"name":"Jaume Barcelo","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Barts Cancer Institute","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jaume","middleName":"","lastName":"Barcelo","suffix":""},{"id":571078238,"identity":"4eaece37-be8a-477e-9adc-d55737f3a43e","order_by":6,"name":"Natalia Rodrigues Mantuano","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Basel","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Natalia","middleName":"Rodrigues","lastName":"Mantuano","suffix":""},{"id":571078239,"identity":"060c2126-92cd-4d61-b47b-f54406d51d2e","order_by":7,"name":"Isabelle Vasconcelos Menegoy Siqueira","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Basel","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Isabelle","middleName":"Vasconcelos Menegoy","lastName":"Siqueira","suffix":""},{"id":571078240,"identity":"acd79757-c91a-4d57-89dd-ea1cf215b71d","order_by":8,"name":"David Marc Davies","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Leucid Bio","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"David","middleName":"Marc","lastName":"Davies","suffix":""},{"id":571078241,"identity":"8cf6459a-6d30-4771-afe9-050ba8d68a71","order_by":9,"name":"Daniel Larcombe-Young","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Leucid Bio","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Daniel","middleName":"","lastName":"Larcombe-Young","suffix":""},{"id":571078242,"identity":"49bad148-9bd3-41b2-be5a-b106454fcdf0","order_by":10,"name":"Vinothini Rajeeve","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6361-4291","institution":"Barts Cancer Institute - Queen Mary University of London","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Vinothini","middleName":"","lastName":"Rajeeve","suffix":""},{"id":571078243,"identity":"575fc1f6-b53c-4063-bb5f-0784f09fb517","order_by":11,"name":"Pedro R. Cutillas","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Barts Cancer Institute","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Pedro","middleName":"R.","lastName":"Cutillas","suffix":""},{"id":571078244,"identity":"f578dd1e-74a3-44dc-ab19-871ec91acbdd","order_by":12,"name":"Paul Grevitt","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"The Centre for Cancer Cell and Molecular Biology, Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Paul","middleName":"","lastName":"Grevitt","suffix":""},{"id":571078245,"identity":"d86b6417-83d7-462d-8f5a-4675abd3e77c","order_by":13,"name":"Jacqueline McDermott","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University College London","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jacqueline","middleName":"","lastName":"McDermott","suffix":""},{"id":571078246,"identity":"827ac7d2-96b4-4c91-bfc1-a2a1f12c7afd","order_by":14,"name":"John Maher","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8275-8488","institution":"King's College London","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"John","middleName":"","lastName":"Maher","suffix":""},{"id":571078247,"identity":"4671b3da-daa2-4932-a1a2-2c5b24baa6a1","order_by":15,"name":"Oscar Maiques","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2172-4388","institution":"","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Oscar","middleName":"","lastName":"Maiques","suffix":""},{"id":571078248,"identity":"9192bb48-3dd5-4650-80f8-15e00d032819","order_by":16,"name":"Tyson Sharp","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1861-7984","institution":"Queen Mary University of London","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tyson","middleName":"","lastName":"Sharp","suffix":""},{"id":571078249,"identity":"7a9de4e9-47bc-4a85-a876-d9f459dfccf8","order_by":17,"name":"Victoria Sanz-Moreno","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5096-9456","institution":"The Institute of Cancer Research","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Victoria","middleName":"","lastName":"Sanz-Moreno","suffix":""},{"id":571078250,"identity":"4c3af645-b543-49b9-8802-bf8fc50a8f66","order_by":18,"name":"J Jones","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Barts Cancer Institute - CRUK Centre of Excellence","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"J","middleName":"","lastName":"Jones","suffix":""},{"id":571078251,"identity":"55f67ed4-9a82-4f9d-ab75-196fb85c0dbe","order_by":19,"name":"Heinz Läubli","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8910-5620","institution":"University of Basel","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Heinz","middleName":"","lastName":"Läubli","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-12-21 18:15:23","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8418969/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8418969/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":101755318,"identity":"f7de27b9-4139-4ee1-8010-889c513e1746","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-03 10:50:59","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":2808847,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"GauthieretalText1.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8418969/v1_covered_c2ab773e-e1cd-447c-a626-4fad478abb76.pdf"},{"id":101752711,"identity":"8336de90-1ee9-459f-82c4-ffa0c55ff714","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-03 10:29:07","extension":"xlsx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":17153285,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supplementary Tables","description":"","filename":"Gauthieretal.Supplementals.xlsx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8418969/v1/cbdf4f0a8a893dce618840e4.xlsx"},{"id":101639680,"identity":"d8b64258-4f2b-470e-a8f1-5982ca5f862f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-02 07:21:20","extension":"pdf","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":3529832,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Extended Data Figures","description":"","filename":"GauthieretalSupplementalFigures.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8418969/v1/2bb57e5dbf69c8ff4e7df5f7.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Targeting extracellular matrix deposition from tumour cells reactivates T cell infiltration and anti-PD1 response in immune-excluded triple-negative breast cancer","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8418969/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8418969/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"A growing body of evidence supports that targeting the tumour extracellular matrix (ECM) in solid cancers holds great promises to reactivate T cell migration in immune-excluded patients. By matrisome profiling of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients, we identified two core ECM proteins enriched in fibrotic immune-excluded tumours and associated with reduced CD8+ T cell stromal infiltration, versican (VCAN) and fibronectin (FN1). Both cancer-associated fibroblasts and aggressive cancer cell lines were found to deposit these two proteins in vitro, conferring resistance to T-cell-mediating cytotoxicity. Characterisation of in vivo murine breast cancer models 4T1 and EMT6 revealed significant differences in tumour ECM deposition and immune cell composition. Accordingly, targeting Fn1 and Vcan in both models induced opposite effects on tumour growth. While it appeared unfavourable in inflamed non fibrotic tumours, deletion of Fn1 in cancer cells was beneficial in immune-excluded tumours by promoting TCF7+ T cells and restoring anti-PD1 response.","manuscriptTitle":"Targeting extracellular matrix deposition from tumour cells reactivates T cell infiltration and anti-PD1 response in immune-excluded triple-negative breast cancer","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-02-02 07:21:15","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8418969/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-communications","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"NCOMMS","sideBox":"Learn more about [Nature Communications](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://mts-ncomms.nature.com/","title":"Nature Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Nature Communications","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"23470095-4c4d-40bc-b379-28d053f16fe6","owner":[],"postedDate":"February 2nd, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":60772068,"name":"Biological sciences/Cancer/Cancer microenvironment"},{"id":60772069,"name":"Biological sciences/Immunology/Tumour immunology"},{"id":60772070,"name":"Biological sciences/Molecular biology/Proteomics"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-02-02T07:21:15+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-02-02 07:21:15","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8418969","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8418969","identity":"rs-8418969","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}

Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below. Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy (via DOI) is the canonical version.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Ask this paper AI returns verbatim quotes from the full text · source: preprint-html

Answers must be backed by verbatim quotes from this paper's full text. Hallucinated quotes are dropped automatically; if no verbatim passage answers the question, we say so. How this works

Citation neighborhood (no data yet)

We don't have any in-corpus citations linked to this paper yet. This is a recent paper (2026) — citers typically take a year or two to land, and the OpenAlex reference graph may still be filling in.

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-05-20T01:45:00.602351+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-05-21T05:10:58.409756+00:00
License: CC-BY-4.0