1. CD36-mediated metabolic adaptation supports regulatory T cell survival and function in tumors
- Author
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Haiping Wang, Taha Merghoub, Sarah-Maria Fendt, Camilla Jandus, Ping-Chih Ho, Xin Xie, Fabien Franco, Juan Fernández-García, Etienne Meylan, Ira Goldberg, Chin Hsien Tsai, Yao Chen Tsui, Isabell Schulze, Roy L. Silverstein, Roberta Zappasodi, Jedd D. Wolchok, Marcel P. Trefny, Alfred Zippelius, Florence Picard, and Syed Raza Mohmood
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,CD36 Antigens ,Male ,FITNESS ,muscle ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Apoptosis ,medicine.disease_cause ,THERAPY ,T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory ,Autoimmunity ,Mice ,0302 clinical medicine ,Cancer immunotherapy ,Neoplasms ,foxp3 ,Tumor Microenvironment ,Immunology and Allergy ,Homeostasis ,Mice, Knockout ,depletion ,hemic and immune systems ,MUSCLE ,fitness ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Female ,Immunotherapy ,DEPLETION ,Life Sciences & Biomedicine ,Reprogramming ,Signal Transduction ,FOXP3 ,Regulatory T cell ,REPROGRAMS ,Immunology ,chemical and pharmacologic phenomena ,macrophage ,Biology ,03 medical and health sciences ,Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating ,Downregulation and upregulation ,Cell Line, Tumor ,medicine ,Animals ,Apoptosis/immunology ,CD36 Antigens/deficiency ,CD36 Antigens/genetics ,CD36 Antigens/immunology ,Homeostasis/immunology ,Humans ,Lipid Metabolism/genetics ,Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating/immunology ,Mice, Inbred C57BL ,Neoplasms/immunology ,Neoplasms/metabolism ,Neoplasms/pathology ,PPAR-beta/immunology ,Signal Transduction/immunology ,T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory/immunology ,T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory/metabolism ,T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory/pathology ,Tumor Microenvironment/immunology ,PPAR-beta ,therapy ,Tumor microenvironment ,Science & Technology ,tregs ,Lipid Metabolism ,reprograms ,030104 developmental biology ,Cell culture ,Cancer research ,MACROPHAGE ,TREGS ,030215 immunology - Abstract
Depleting regulatory T cells (T-reg cells) to counteract immunosuppressive features of the tumor microenvironment (TME) is an attractive strategy for cancer treatment; however, autoimmunity due to systemic impairment of their suppressive function limits its therapeutic potential. Elucidating approaches that specifically disrupt intratumoral T-reg cells is direly needed for cancer immunotherapy. We found that CD36 was selectively upregulated in intrautumoral T-reg cells as a central metabolic modulator. CD36 fine-tuned mitochondrial fitness via peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-beta signaling, programming T-reg cells to adapt to a lactic acid-enriched TME. Genetic ablation of Cd36 in T-reg cells suppressed tumor growth accompanied by a decrease in intratumoral T-reg cells and enhancement of antitumor activity in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes without disrupting immune homeostasis. Furthermore, CD36 targeting elicited additive antitumor responses with anti-programmed cell death protein 1 therapy. Our findings uncover the unexplored metabolic adaptation that orchestrates the survival and functions of intratumoral T-reg cells, and the therapeutic potential of targeting this pathway for reprogramming the TME., Tumor environments are highly acidic due to high concentrations of lactic acid. Ho and colleagues report that tumor-infiltrating regulatory T cells adapt to this tumor environment by upregulating expression of CD36, which allows them to use fatty acids to fuel their metabolism.
- Published
- 2019