Enhanced inflammatory response mediated by parenchymal cells associates with resistance towards mTOR inhibition

Activation of the mTOR pathway is frequently found in cancer, but mTOR inhibitors have thus far failed to demonstrate significant antiproliferative efficacy in the majority of cancer types. Besides cancer cell-intrinsic resistance mechanisms, it is conceivable that mTOR inhibitors impact on non-malignant host cells in a manner that ultimately supports resistance of cancer cells. Against this background, we sought to analyze the functional consequences of mTOR inhibition in hepatocytes for the growth of metastatic colon cancer. To this end, we established a liver epithelial cell (LEC)-specific knock-out (KO) of mTOR (mTORLEC mice). We used these mice to characterize the growth of colorectal liver metastases with and without partial hepatectomy to model different clinical settings. While the LEC-specific loss of mTOR remained without effect on metastasis growth in intact liver, partial liver resection resulted in the formation of larger metastases in mTORLEC mice compared to wildtype controls. This was accompanied by significantly enhanced inflammatory activity in LEC-specific mTOR KO livers after partial liver resection. Analysis of NF-κB target gene expression and immunohistochemistry of p65 displayed a significant activation of NF-κB in mTORLEC mice, suggesting a functional importance of this pathway for the observed inflammatory phenotype. Taken together, we show an unexpected acceleration of liver metastases upon deletion of mTOR in liver epithelial cells. Our results support the notion that non-malignant host cells can contribute to resistance against mTOR inhibitors and encourage to test if anti-inflammatory drugs are able to improve the efficacy of mTOR inhibitor for cancer therapy.