Fig. 3

IL-6 inhibitor and PD-L1 blockade synergistically counteract tumorigenesis by mediating CAFs. A Transcriptomic sequencing and immune deconvolution analysis were used to identify significant changes in specific immune cell populations within the TME of pleural tissue with tumor nodules. B Schematic representation of the establishment of the MPE mouse model with or without NIH/3T3, and the treatment protocol with the vehicle solution, and anti-IL-6 mAb combined with anti-PD-L1 mAb. The MPE mice were randomly assigned to three groups. Created with BioRender. C Western blot analysis of α-SMA expression in NIH/3T3 co-cultured LLC at different ratios. GAPDH was used as the equal loading control. D Representative in vivo bioluminescence images of the growth of mice MPE. E Tumor nodule numbers and F MPE volume were observed. G Representative images of tumors nodules of the MPE mice. H A heatmap represented the differentially expressed genes related to CAFs. I KEGG pathway enrichment of the differentially expressed mRNA between the combined therapy group and the PD-L1 blockade group. All experiments were performed with ≥ 3 biological replicates. *P < 0.05, ***p < 0.001, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001, ns: not statistically significant. V, mice treated with the vehicle solution; L, mice treated with anti-IL-6 antibody; P, mice treated with anti-PD-L1 antibody; PL, mice treated with anti-IL-6 antibody and anti-PD-L1 antibody; KEGG, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes