SLU Study: Immune Dysfunction Increases Cancer Risk in Obese Populations
11/14/2024
ST. LOUIS —Researchers at Saint Louis University’s School of Medicine say T-cell dysfunction is leading to an increased risk of cancer in obese populations.
T cells are white blood cells called lymphocytes essential to your immune system in the fight against infections and cancer. Ryan Teague, Ph.D., professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at SLU, and his team are exploring why obesity impacts T-cell dysfunction and compromises immune surveillance, or the body’s ability to survey malignant cells and clear them before they become tumors.
Ryan Teague, Ph.D., left, and Alex Piening, an M.D./Ph.D. graduate student at SLU, work in the lab in Doisy Research Center on October 21, 2024. Photo by Sarah Conroy.
The study, which was led by Teague and co-authored by Alex Piening, an M.D./Ph.D. graduate student at SLU, was recently published in Nature Communications, found that T-cell dysfunction linked to obesity prevented T cells from detecting tumor cells, placing obese mice at higher risk of developing tumors when exposed to a carcinogen. Teague and his team are now trying to uncover the exact mechanism underlying the metabolic dysfunctions associated with obesity that directly impact T-cell function.
Ongoing projects in Teague’s lab at SLU are designed to identify barriers to successful cancer immunotherapy and develop strategies to overcome these barriers for improved patient outcomes. Teague and his team investigate how obesity impacts the efficacy of immunotherapies.
"Immunotherapy boosts a patient's immune system by targeting T cells and reinvigorating them. Paradoxically, immunotherapy is often more successful in patients with obesity, where the immune system isn’t functioning quite as well," Teague said. "Our research explains this paradox by showing that in the setting of obesity, developing tumors are only required to escape a weakened immune system. Such outgrown tumors are not well adapted to evade the reinvigorated T cells elicited during immunotherapy, and thus, are more easily destroyed."
Teague said single-cell RNA sequencing played a critical role in the study’s findings, which allowed scientists to learn what’s happening inside individual immune cells within tumors.
"We learned that the dysfunction in these T cells lies in their inability to kill tumors. Those genes were not being turned on. It also lies in their inability to acquire the metabolic functions needed to sustain anti-tumor activity," Teague said.
Thanks to SLU’s investment in single-cell RNA sequencing technology, the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology has leveraged this new approach to advance its work studying cancer and the immune system, bringing us closer to new cures.
Other authors include Kelly D. Pyles, Kyle S. McCommis, Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine; Emily Ebert, Carter Gottlieb, Niloufar Khojandi, Lindsey M. Kuehm, Stella G. Hoft, Richard J. DiPaolo, Ph.D., Stephen T. Ferris, Ph.D., Elise Alspach, Ph.D., Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
Latest Newslink
- Sawday Shares Significance of Nothingness at James Russell Lowell Prize CeremonyA lot can be said about the blank spaces in literature. That was one of the messages from Jonathan Sawday, Ph.D., SLU's Walter J. Ong, S.J. Chair in Humanities in the English Department. Wednesday afternoon, a standing-room-only crowd gathered in the Pere Marquette Gallery to hear Sawday's thoughts on his award-winning text, Blanks, Print, Space, and Void in English Renaissance Literature: An Archaeology of Absence.
- SLU to Host National Security Symposium Focused on U.S., China RelationshipSaint Louis University will host a national security symposium focused on the United States' strategic relationship with China. The event will feature top industry experts, government leaders, and researchers. The panels will include technology competition, China's economic landscape, and AI dominance.
- With $5 Million HRSA Geriatrics Grant, SLU Prepares Workforce to Care for Older AdultsA new grant will extend 30 years of geriatrics-related funding to Saint Louis University clinicians and researchers.
- SLU History Professor Receives Fulbright Specialist Award to Create Digital Tool Focusing on Gaelic IrelandThomas Finan, Ph.D., associate professor of history at Saint Louis University, has received a Fulbright Specialist Award. He will work with colleagues at the University of Galway to create a joint database of archaeological and historical research focusing on Gaelic Ireland.
- Don't Let that Cookie Crumble: SSE Teams Build, Test Gingerbread HousesTeams of students, faculty and staff in Saint Louis University's School of Science and Engineering recently put their engineering skills to work for a December Innovation Challenge. The teams built gingerbread houses designed to stand up during a weight-loading competition.
- Dr. Edward J. Feser Named 34th President of Saint Louis UniversityFeser, a Roman Catholic, Jesuit-educated leader in higher education, will assume the SLU presidency on July 1, 2025. Feser currently serves as the provost and executive vice president of Oregon State University (OSU), a land-grant institution with more than 38,000 students, a $1.8 billion budget and $480 million annually in externally funded research.
