A UNC research team led by Jessica Thaxton, PhD, MsCR, associate professor of cell biology and physiology and co-leader of the Cancer Cell Biology Program at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, aimed to understand why T cells do not sustain energy in tumors.
T cells are often called “assassins” or “killers” because they can orchestrate and carry out missions to hunt down bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells throughout the body. Mighty as they may be, recent research has shown that once T cells infiltrate the environment of a solid tumor, they lose the energy needed to combat the cancer.
“Our discovery fills a long-standing gap in knowledge regarding why T cells in solid tumors don’t appropriately generate energy,” said Thaxton. “We inhibited the expression of ACC in mouse cancer models, and we observed that T cells were able to persist much better in solid tumors.”
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