Divergent role of CD8 T cells with distinct metabolic phenotypes during curative radio-immunotherapy in hot versus cold tumors.

ABSTRACT: Immunotherapy has potential for impactful cancer cures by empowering patients' own immune cells. We developed a radio-immunotherapy regimen that can cure large immunologically hot and cold murine tumors. Here, we explored the divergent role of CD8 T cells during this radio-immunotherapy in contrasting hot colon carcinoma versus cold melanoma. We introduced an immunocompetent mouse model with mCherry-expressing CD8 T cells to provide cell tracking in vivo. We investigated single-cell function, metabolism, and gene expression temporal changes using flow cytometry, in vivo multiphoton imaging, single-cell RNA sequencing, and multiplexed immunofluorescence to determine the underlying mechanisms. We found that in contrast to the hot colon carcinoma model, CD8 T cells from the cold

SUBMITTER: Heaton AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12633444 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature