CD55 and CD59 Can Limit the Anti-Tumor Efficacy of Daratumumab in Natural Killer/T-Cell Lymphoma

Complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) is one of the major mechanisms mediating the anti-tumor efficacy of Daratumumab. We have previously demonstrated that a majority of Natural Killer/T- Cell Lymphoma (NKTL) patient samples express CD38 and Daratumumab is highly effective against NKTL cell lines expressing mid-high levels of CD38.

In this report we show that subsequent testing in an NKTL mouse xenograft model confirms the potency of Daratumumab in vivo as evidenced by the inhibition in tumour progression and prolongation of mouse survival. When treatment was continued over a month, some tumors began to rapidly enlarge ('Resistant') while the rest remained similar or smaller ('Sensitive') than the tumour volume at the initiation of Daratumumab treatment. An mRNA analysis comparing 'Resistant' and 'Sensitive' tumors showed that while both tumours bore similar levels of CD38 expression, resistant tumours displayed an upregulation of complement inhibitory proteins (CIP), CD55 and CD59 but not CD46. This led us to hypothesize that CD59 and CD55 may play a critical role in Daratumumab-mediated CDC in NKTL.

FACS analyses demonstrated that the number of membrane molecules of CD55 and CD59 appeared inversely correlated to Daratumumab-mediated CDC. A single CIP knockdown was first performed to delineate the role of each CIP. Silencing CD46 confirmed that it does not have any effect on CDC in NKTL. However, single knockdown of CD55 or CD59 was able to induce cytotoxicity in CDC-resistant cell line CD38^midCD55^hiCD59^lo NKYS, and promote NKS1 CD38^hiCD55^hiCD59^mid to further lysis. Both single and double knockdown of CD55 and CD59 could not enhance Daratumumab-induced CDC in CD38^loCD55^hiCD59^hi HuT78 which recapitulates the importance of CD38 levels. Unexpectedly, the double knockdown did not sensitize CD38^hiCD55^hiCD59^hi KMS12BM either.

This led us to conjecture that it may be the ratio of CD38:CIPs which is predictive of response to Daratumumab than CD38 or CIPs alone. All-Trans Retinoic Acid (ATRA) binds the RARE element in CD38 gene leading to upregulation of mRNA and protein expression of CD38. We thus downregulated the expression of CIPs with siRNA followed by amplification of CD38 expression with ATRA in NKTL. This strategy resulted in a significant increase in the CD38:CIP ratio and induced almost a total lysis of NKS1 cells, as well as sensitised HuT78 to a massive amount of Daratumumab-mediated CDC. These experiments suggest that by increasing the CD38: CIP, ratio we can overcome resistance to Daratumumab-mediated CDC.

To further statistically study this, a Spearman's rank correlation analyses was performed. The Spearman correlation coefficient shows that the number of surface molecules of CD38 positively correlates to CDC while that of CD55 displays an inverse correlation. CD46 and CD59 do not show any significant correlation. Notably, when correlating the CD38:CIP ratio instead to CDC, the CD38:CD46, CD38:CD55 and CD38:CD59 ratios always show a significant positive correlation coefficient. This suggests that the potential efficacy of Daratumumab can be predicted more accurately based on the ratio of CD38:CIP than any of the molecules alone. Detection of a low CD38:CIP ratio in patient samples could be a biomarker for potentially poorer response to Daratumumab treatment.

Daratumumab-resistant NKTL cell lines are being developed in our lab and RNA sequencing comparing sensitive and resistance cells will be subsequently performed in order to gain further insights to mechanisms that may lead to resistance. Preliminary analyses on CD38 and CIP expression so far has shown that CD38 protein and mRNA expression are prominently downregulated in resistant cell lines while the level of CIPs remain similar or increased. The total outcomes of these studies will contribute valuable insights to clinical trials that currently involve Daratumumab treatment.