2024
June
Three’s company: immune triads license CD8+ T cell-mediated antitumor immunity
June 26, 2024
CD4+ T cells are known to “help” CD8+ T cells by licensing their cytotoxic functions in tumors, but exactly how this help is given is not entirely understood. To better understand how CD4+ T cells contribute to CD8+ T cell responses, Espinosa-Carrasco et al. developed a tumor and adoptive cell therapy (ACT) model...
Shaping immunity: how tissue confinement impacts DC function
June 19, 2024
Immune cells shift shapes as they travel through the body’s tissues. Shape-sensing pathways play a role in adapting to these deformations, but it remains unknown how shape sensing affects immune function. Alraies et al. recently published data in Nature Immunology on changes to the immune function of dendritic cells (DCs) while undergoing cell...
Strong and steady: robust TCR stimulation supports Tpex cell formation and maintenance
June 12, 2024
Progenitor exhausted T cells (Tpex), marked by high expression of Tcf1, Tox, and Ly108, help to replenish and maintain effector T cells in tumors, allowing for strong and sustained antitumor functions, including in the context of immunotherapy responses. However, exactly how these cells acquire and maintain this functional phenotype, and whether TCR engagement...
Age is not just a number: age-related dysfunctional T cell subset restricts antitumor responses
June 5, 2024
Aging is known to induce immune dysfunction in cancer, but the mechanisms behind it remain poorly understood. In a recent Nature Immunology publication, Chen et al. assessed tumor-infiltrating T cells and the tumor microenvironment (TME) of young and aged mice to determine how age-related dysfunction relates to chronic stimulation-induced T cell exhaustion. To...
