Tianyu Cao, Wenyao Zhang, Qi Wang, Chen Wang, Wanqi Ma, Cangang Zhang, Minghui Ge, Miaomiao Tian, Jia Yu, Anjun Jiao, Liang Wang, Manjiao Liu, Pei Wang, Zhiyu Guo, Yun Zhou, Shuyi Chen, Wen Yin, Jing Yi, Hao Guo, Hua Han, Baojun Zhang, Kaichun Wu, Daiming Fan, Xin Wang, Yongzhan Nie, Yuanyuan Lu, Xiaodi Zhao
Taurine is used to bolster immunity, but its effects on antitumor immunity are unclear. Here, we report that cancer-related taurine consumption causes T cell exhaustion and tumor progression. The taurine transporter SLC6A6 is correlated with aggressiveness and poor outcomes in multiple cancers. SLC6A6-mediated taurine uptake promotes the malignant behaviors of tumor cells but also increases the survival and effector function of CD8+ T cells. Tumor cells outcompete CD8+ T cells for taurine by overexpressing SLC6A6, which induces T cell death and malfunction, thereby fueling tumor progression...
March 28, 2024: Cell