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BackgroundAdoptive cell transfer (ACT) therapies are successfully used in the clinic; however, a large fraction of patients remains unresponsive. The limited efficacy of this therapy is due, in part, to the terminally differentiated state of transferred T cells, which limits their proliferation and long-lasting antitumor response. Memory CD8+ T cells display specific phenotypic and functional characteristics endowing them with the ability to provide a more robust and long-lasting antitumor immune response than their terminally differentiated counterparts. The development and fitness of memory T cells was recently shown to be associated with specific metabolic pathways.MethodsWe aimed to metabolically reprogram CD8+ T cells in order to generate fitter memory-like T cells prior to ACT.ResultsWe have found that pharmacological inhibition of the metabolic enzyme isocitrate dehydrogenase 2 (IDH2) during the priming of CD8+ T cells led to an increased memory formation and to an enhanced tumor growth inhibition upon ACT into melanoma tumor-bearing mice. Interestingly, IDH2 inhibition was associated with increased histone methylation and acetylation. We show that these histone modifications were required to induce the observed memory phenotype.ConclusionsThese results suggest a novel strategy to promote stable memory T cell differentiation by epigenetic processes induced by metabolic reprogramming during T cell priming. These findings might be exploited to optimize ACT immunotherapy against cancer.

Summary: In this issue, Hu and colleagues unveil that IFNα administration combined with anti–PD-1 therapy can potentiate murine and human CD8+ T-cell antitumor response in hepatocellular carcinoma, highlighting a novel therapeutic strategy for hepatocellular carcinoma. See related article by Hu et al., p. 1718 (6) .

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