ZEB1, a novel junctional adhesion molecule A regulator, impacts sensitivity of pancreatic cancer-associated fibroblasts to reovirus

Oncolytic virus (OV) therapy is a promising treatment for various tumors. However, in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the high abundance of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) can limit OV therapy efficacy by impairing viral spread and anti-tumor immunity. We have previously shown that oncolytic reovirus infection of CAFs depends on the expression of the reovirus entry receptor junctional adhesion molecule A (JAM-A), which is not or lowly expressed in most PDAC CAFs. We propose that increasing JAM-A expression on CAFs will boost viral spread in a tumor. However, there are currently no known regulators of JAM-A expression. Therefore, we performed a genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 knockout screen to identify novel regulators of JAM-A expression. Ablation of the top negative regulator, zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 (<i>ZEB1</i>), in pancreatic fibroblasts led to strong JAM-A upregulation. We show that ZEB1 directly regulates JAM-A expression by binding to the enhancer-box (E-box) regions located within the JAM-A promoter. Importantly, ZEB1 ablation increased the sensitivity of fibroblasts to reovirus infection and subsequent cell death. Our work provides a novel overview of genes regulating JAM-A expression and provides a rational approach of combining ZEB1 inhibition with reovirus therapy to target both CAFs and tumor cells in stroma-rich tumors such as PDAC.