Loss of the extracellular protease ADAMTS1 reveals an antitumorigenic program involving the action of NIDOGEN-1 on macrophage polarization

Recent research highlighted the contribution of extracellular matrix, and particularly of ADAMTS proteases, in immune regulation. Now, our work with melanoma and mammary tumor models revealed that tumor blockade induced by the lack of <i>Adamts1</i> led to an increased vascular deposition of its substrate, the basement membrane glycoprotein NIDOGEN-1 (NID1). Significantly, the overexpression of NID1 in the melanoma syngeneic model also blocked tumor progression, disclosing an overlapping phenotype with the absence of <i>Adamts1</i>. These tumors showed important alterations in their immune infiltrates, emphasizing an enhanced presence of antitumorigenic macrophages and a global inflammatory landscape. We corroborated <i>in vitro</i> that full length NID1, but not its fragments, promoted an M1-like macrophage polarization, mainly mediated by the αvβ3 integrin. Significantly, the projection of RNA-seq from our tumor models to two large human melanoma datasets allowed us to discover a new gene signature associated with good prognosis and the abundance of M1-like macrophages. These results support NID1 as a novel tumor suppressor with immunomodulatory properties, and unveil the existence of key oncological drivers in the extracellular scenario.