IRF-1 responsiveness to IFN-gamma predicts different cancer immune phenotypes

Background: Several lines of evidence suggest a dichotomy between immune active and quiescent cancers, with the former associated with a good prognostic phenotype and better responsiveness to immunotherapy. Central to such dichotomy is the master regulator of the acute inflammatory process interferon regulatory factor (IRF)-1. However, it remains unknown whether the responsiveness of IRF-1 to cytokines is able to differentiate cancer immune phenotypes. Methods: IRF-1 activation was measured in 15 melanoma cell lines at basal level and after treatment with IFN-g, TNF-a and a combination of both. Microarray analysis was used to compare transcriptional patterns between cell lines characterised by high or low IRF-1 activation. Results: We observed a strong positive correlation between IRF-1 activation at basal level and after IFN-g and TNF-a treatment. Microarray demonstrated that three cell lines with low and three with high IRF-1 inducible translocation scores differed in the expression of 597 transcripts. Functional interpretation analysis showed mTOR and Wnt/b-cathenin as the top downregulated pathways in the cell lines with low inducible IRF-1 activation, suggesting that a low IRF-1 inducibility recapitulates a cancer phenotype already described in literature characterised by poor prognosis. Conclusion: Our findings support the central role of IRF-1 in influencing different tumour phenotypes.