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Tired out T cells: aberrant glycosylation drives T cell exhaustion in early tumors

Changes in glycosylation are a hallmark of cancer, and recent work has suggested that branched N-glycans on T cells may play a role in limiting their antitumor activity. In recent work, Azevedo et al. investigated the T cell glycome within tumors to...

Anchored screening identifies transcription factor blueprints underlying dendritic cell diversity and subset-specific anti-tumor immunity

Using a sequential anchored transcription factor screen, Henriques-Oliveira, Altman, and Kurochkin et al. identified two transcription factor triads: PU.1, IRF4, and PRDM1 as inducers of cells similar...

Engineered T cells stimulate dendritic cell recruitment and antigen spreading for potent anti-tumor immunity

Focusing on antigenic heterogeneity and antigen loss in solid tumors, Xiao, Wang, and He et al. engineered T cells to express FLT3L and XCL1 (FX). Adoptively transferred FX T cells improved DC recruit...

Long-range deployment of tumor-antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes inhibits lung metastasis of breast cancer

Xing, Zhou, and Wang et al. demonstrated the role of CD103+CD8+ T cells in protection against breast cancer lung metastasis. Tumor antigen-specific CD103+CD8+ T cells were primed in TDLNs, and recruit...

Engineered bacteria launch and control an oncolytic virus

Singer and Pabón et al. developed a Salmonella typhimurium bacterial platform that delivered non-spreading, self-replicating viral RNA, even into cell types beyond the virus’s natural tropism. S. typh...

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Previous Digests

Overcoming dysfunctional CAR-T in pancreatic cancer

August 27, 2025

Characterized by very poor outcomes and an immune-cold tumor phenotype, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) poses a major challenge for immunotherapy treatment. Aznar and Good et al. performed a phase I study assessing the safety and feasibility of a mesothelin...

Agonist anti-CD40 shows promise in a phase 1 clinical trial

August 20, 2025

CD40 agonists, which promote maturation and activation of antigen-presenting cells (APCs), have consistently shown promise in preclinical research, but have shown limited efficacy in clinical trials, often due to toxicity. To improve the safety and efficacy of CD40 agonists...

Lymph node T cells lead the antitumor charge, while tumor-resident T cells fall short

August 13, 2025

While CD8+ T cells with various stemness, tissue residency, and exhaustion features have been implicated in antitumor responses and ICB efficacy, the exact contribution of each subset remains poorly understood. Wijesinghe, Rausch, et al. used multiple genetic murine models...

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