A novel system to map protein interactions reveals evolutionarily conserved immune evasion pathways on transmissible cancers

Around 40% of humans and Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) develop cancer in their lifetime, compared to less than 10% for most species. Additionally, devils are affected by two of the three known transmissible cancers in mammals. Immune checkpoint immunotherapy has transformed human medicine, but a lack of species-specific reagents has limited checkpoint immunology in most species. We developed a simple cut-and-paste reagent development system and used the fluorescent fusion protein system to show that immune checkpoint interactions are conserved across 160,000,000 years of evolution, CD200 is highly expressed on transmissible tumor cells, and co-expression of CD200R1 can block CD200 surface expression. The versatility of the system across species was demonstrated by fusing a fluorescent reporter to a well- characterized camelid-derived nanobody that binds human PDL1. The evolutionarily conserved pathways suggest that naturally occurring cancers in devils and other species can be used to advance our understanding of cancer and immunological tolerance.