Obesity modulates NK-cell activity via LDL & DUSP1 signaling for Populations with Adverse Social Determinants

African American (AA) women are disproportionally affected by obesity and hyperlipidemia, particularly in the setting of adverse social determinants of health (aSDoH) contributing to health disparities. Obesity, hyperlipidemia, and aSDoH appear to impair Natural Killer cells (NKs). As potential common underlying mechanisms are largely unknown, we sought to investigate common signaling pathways involved in NK dysfunction related to obesity and hyperlipidemia in AA women from under-resourced neighborhoods. We determined in freshly isolated NKs that obesity and measures of aSDoH are associated with a shift in NK subsets away from CD56dim/CD16+ cytotoxic NKs. Using ex vivo data, we identified LDL as a marker related to NK cell function in an AA population from under-resourced neighborhoods. Additionally, NK cells from AA women with obesity and LDL-treated NK cells displayed a loss in NK cell function. Comparative unbiased RNA sequencing analysis revealed DUSP1 as a common factor. Subsequently, chemical inhibition of DUSP1 and DUSP1 overexpression in NK cells highlighted its significance in NK cell function and lysosome biogenesis in a mTOR/TFEB-related fashion. Our data demonstrate a pathway by which obesity and hyperlipidemia in the setting of aSDoH may relate to NK dysfunction, making DUSP1 an important target for further investigation of health disparities.