人 Vγ9Vδ2 T 细胞的抗肿瘤活性受 TGF-β通过显著的表型、转录组和代谢变化而受损

Despite significant advances, the eradication of cancer remains a clinical challenge which justifies the urgent exploration of additional therapeutic strategies such as immunotherapies. Human peripheral Vγ9Vδ2 T cells represent an attractive candidate subset for designing safe, feasible and effective adoptive T cell transfer-based therapies.

However, following their infiltration within tumors, γδ T cells are exposed to various regulating constituents and signals from the tumor microenvironment (TME), which severely alter their antitumor functions.

Here, we show that TGF-β, whose elevated production in some solid tumors is linked to a poor prognosis, interferes with the antigenic activation of human Vγ9Vδ2 T cells in vitro . This regulatory cytokine strongly impairs their cytolytic activity, which is accompanied by the induction of particular phenotypic, transcriptomic and metabolic changes. Collectively, these observations provide information for better understanding and targeting the impact of TME components to regulate the antitumor activity of human T cell effectors.