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In recent years, the central role of cell bioenergetics in regulating immune cell function and fate has been recognized, giving rise to the interest in immunometabolism, an area of research focused on the interaction between metabolic regulation and immune function. Thus, early metabolic changes associated with the polarization of macrophages into pro-inflammatory or pro-resolving cells under different stimuli have been characterized. Tumor-associated macrophages are among the most abundant cells in the tumor microenvironment; however, it exists an unmet need to study the effect of chemotherapeutics on macrophage immunometabolism. Here, we use a systems biology approach that integrates transcriptomics and metabolomics to unveil the immunometabolic effects of trabectedin (TRB) and lurbinectedin (LUR), two DNA-binding agents with proven antitumor activity. Our results show that TRB and LUR activate human macrophages toward a pro-inflammatory phenotype by inducing a specific metabolic rewiring program that includes ROS production, changes in the mitochondrial inner membrane potential, increased pentose phosphate pathway, lactate release, tricarboxylic acids (TCA) cycle, serine and methylglyoxal pathways in human macrophages. Glutamine, aspartate, histidine, and proline intracellular levels are also decreased, whereas oxygen consumption is reduced. The observed immunometabolic changes explain additional antitumor activities of these compounds and open new avenues to design therapeutic interventions that specifically target the immunometabolic landscape in the treatment of cancer., Competing Interests: The authors declare to have received a grant from PharmaMar to support in part the costs of the research. Trabectedin and lurbinectedin were provided by PharmaMar. This funder had no role in the design of the study, in the data analysis and interpretation, in writing the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Povo-Retana, Fariñas, Landauro-Vera, Mojena, Alvarez-Lucena, Fernández-Moreno, Castrillo, de la Rosa Medina, Sánchez-García, Foguet, Mas, Marin, Cascante and Boscá.)

Existing immune signatures and tumor mutational burden have only modest predictive capacity for the efficacy of immune check point inhibitors. In this study, we developed an immune-metabolic signature suitable for personalized ICI therapies. A classifier using an immune-metabolic signature (IMMETCOLS) was developed on a training set of 77 metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) samples and validated on 4,200 tumors from the TCGA database belonging to 11 types. Here, we reveal that the IMMETCOLS signature classifies tumors into three distinct immune-metabolic clusters. Cluster 1 displays markers of enhanced glycolisis, hexosamine byosinthesis and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. On multivariate analysis, cluster 1 tumors were enriched in pro-immune signature but not in immunophenoscore and were associated with the poorest median survival. Its predicted tumor metabolic features suggest an acidic-lactate-rich tumor microenvironment (TME) geared to an immunosuppressive setting, enriched in fibroblasts. Cluster 2 displays features of gluconeogenesis ability, which is needed for glucose-independent survival and preferential use of alternative carbon sources, including glutamine and lipid uptake/β-oxidation. Its metabolic features suggest a hypoxic and hypoglycemic TME, associated with poor tumor-associated antigen presentation. Finally, cluster 3 is highly glycolytic but also has a solid mitochondrial function, with concomitant upregulation of glutamine and essential amino acid transporters and the pentose phosphate pathway leading to glucose exhaustion in the TME and immunosuppression. Together, these findings suggest that the IMMETCOLS signature provides a classifier of tumors from diverse origins, yielding three clusters with distinct immune-metabolic profiles, representing a new predictive tool for patient selection for specific immune-metabolic therapeutic approaches., Competing Interests: JM received research grants from Merck, Roche, Amgen, NanoString, Incyte, and Biocartis and reports personal fees from Advance Medical, Cancer Expert Now, Fundación Clínica Universitaria, Sirtex, Pierre-Fabre, Shire, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Servier, Sanofi, and Roche. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Pedrosa, Foguet, Oliveres, Archilla, de Herreros, Rodríguez, Postigo, Benítez-Ribas, Camps, Cuatrecasas, Castells, Prat, Thomson, Maurel and Cascante.)