article · Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy
Tumors foster an immunosuppressive microenvironment to evade the antitumor immune response. However, the influence of intratumoral immunosuppressive steroids on tumor-infiltrating natural killer (NK) cells and their implications for effective immunotherapy has remained largely unexplored. Here, we report that the functional enrichment of glucocorticoid cortisol signaling in the lung tumor microenvironment (TME) impairs NK cell anti-tumor cytotoxicity and exacerbates hypoxic stress. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and macrophages convert inactive cortisone to active cortisol, while T cells, fibroblasts, myeloid cells, macrophages, and cancer cells contribute to de novo steroid biosynthesis, collectively establishing a steroid-rich niche. Pharmacological inhibition of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in vivo alleviates cortisol-mediated immune suppression, resulting in reduced tumor growth and enhanced cytotoxicity of tumor-infiltrating NK cells. To overcome the cortisol-induced dysfunction of solid tumor targeting immunotherapy, we engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) -NK cells specific to the Carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 5 (CEACAM5) (highly expressed in lung tumors) and rendered them cortisol-resistant by genetic deletion of the cortisol receptor gene NR3C1. In cortisol-rich niches, cortisol-resistant CAR-NK cells sustained antitumor cytotoxicity. Mechanistically, NR3C1 deletion relieved cortisol-mediated suppression of PI3K-AKT-NF-κB signaling, restored anti-tumor activity, and markedly reduced hypoxic stress. In lung metastasis models, cortisol-resistant CAR-NK cells achieved superior tumor control and significantly reduced tumor burden compared with conventional CAR-NK cells. Together, these findings identify local cortisol signaling as a critical barrier to solid tumor immunotherapy and establish cortisol-resistant CAR-NK cells as a promising strategy for targeting steroidogenic solid tumors, which can be combined with therapeutic glucocorticoids.
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DOI: 10.1038/s41392-026-02638-z
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