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Creators/Authors contains: "Castro, Sarah A"

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  1. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive cancer without effective treatments. It is characterized by activating KRAS mutations and p53 alterations. However, how these mutations dysregulate cancer-cell-intrinsic gene programs to influence the immune landscape of the tumor microenvironment (TME) remains poorly understood. Here, we show that p53^(R172H) establishes an immunosuppressive TME, diminishes the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), and enhances tumor growth. Our findings reveal that the upregulation of the immunosuppressive chemokine Cxcl1 mediates these pro-tumorigenic functions of p53^(R172H). Mechanistically, we show that p53^(R172H) associates with the distal enhancers of the Cxcl1 gene, increasing enhancer activity and Cxcl1 expression. p53^(R172H) occupies these enhancers in an NF-κB-pathway-dependent manner, suggesting NF-κB’s role in recruiting p53^(R172H) to the Cxcl1 enhancers. Our work uncovers how a common mutation in a tumor-suppressor transcription factor appropriates enhancers, stimulating chemokine expression and establishing an immunosuppressive TME that diminishes ICI efficacy in PDAC. 
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