We report on the production of hydrocortisone, the major adrenal glucocorticoid of mammals and an important intermediate of steroidal drug synthesis, from a simple carbon source by recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains. An artificial and fully self-sufficient biosynthetic pathway involving 13 engineered genes was assembled and expressed in a single yeast strain. Endogenous sterol biosynthesis was rerouted to produce compatible sterols to serve as substrates for the heterologous part of the pathway. Biosynthesis involves eight mammalian proteins (mature forms of CYP11A1, adrenodoxin (ADX), and adrenodoxin reductase (ADR); mitochondrial forms of ADX and CYP11B1; 3beta-HSD, CYP17A1, and CYP21A1). Optimization involved modulating the two mitochondrial systems and disrupting of unwanted side reactions associated with ATF2, GCY1, and YPR1 gene products. Hydrocortisone was the major steroid produced. This work demonstrates the feasibility of transfering a complex biosynthetic pathway from higher eukaryotes into microorganisms.

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Colibactin‐producing E. coli (CoPEC) are frequently detected in colorectal cancer (CRC) and exhibit procarcinogenic properties. Because increasing evidence show the role of immune environment and especially of antitumor T‐cells in CRC development, we investigated the impact of CoPEC on these cells in human CRC and in the APCMin/+ mice colon. T‐cell density was evaluated by immunohistochemistry in human tumors known for their CoPEC status. APCmin/+ mice were chronically infected with a CoPEC strain (11G5). Immune cells (neutrophils and T‐cell populations) were then quantified by immunofluorescent staining of the colon. The quantification of lymphoid populations was also performed in the mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs). Here, we show that the colonization of CRC patients by CoPEC is associated with a decrease of tumor‐infiltrating T lymphocytes (CD3+ T‐cells). Similarly, we demonstrated, in mice, that CoPEC chronic infection decreases CD3+ and CD8+ T‐cells and increases colonic inflammation. In addition, we noticed a significant decrease in antitumor T‐cells in the MLNs of CoPEC‐infected mice compared to that of controls. Moreover, we show that CoPEC infection decreases the antimouse PD‐1 immunotherapy efficacy in MC38 tumor model. Our findings suggest that CoPEC could promote a procarcinogenic immune environment through impairment of antitumor T‐cell response, leading to tumoral resistance to immunotherapy. CoPEC could thus be a new biomarker predicting the anti‐PD‐1 response in CRC.

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