| First Author | Mahata B | Year | 2020 |
| Journal | Nat Commun | Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 3588 |
| PubMed ID | 32680985 | Mgi Jnum | J:291186 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6444989 | Doi | 10.1038/s41467-020-17339-6 |
| Citation | Mahata B, et al. (2020) Tumors induce de novo steroid biosynthesis in T cells to evade immunity. Nat Commun 11(1):3588 |
| abstractText | Tumors subvert immune cell function to evade immune responses, yet the complex mechanisms driving immune evasion remain poorly understood. Here we show that tumors induce de novo steroidogenesis in T lymphocytes to evade anti-tumor immunity. Using a transgenic steroidogenesis-reporter mouse line we identify and characterize de novo steroidogenic immune cells, defining the global gene expression identity of these steroid-producing immune cells and gene regulatory networks by using single-cell transcriptomics. Genetic ablation of T cell steroidogenesis restricts primary tumor growth and metastatic dissemination in mouse models. Steroidogenic T cells dysregulate anti-tumor immunity, and inhibition of the steroidogenesis pathway is sufficient to restore anti-tumor immunity. This study demonstrates T cell de novo steroidogenesis as a mechanism of anti-tumor immunosuppression and a potential druggable target. |
