A shot of bacteria might seem unwanted in a clinic, but new research shows that it could be just the boost immune cells need.
A study recently published in Nature shows that bacteria can produce metabolites that make tumors better immunotherapy targets.1 Bacteria engineered to produce the T cell-enhancing amino acid L-arginine drew more T cells into tumors and bolstered the tumor-clearing response to checkpoint blockade, a form of immunotherapy that interferes with built-in controls so that a patient’s immune cells attack tumors without restrictions.
“These arginine bacteria are not going to solve all the problems, but they clearly help enhance the antitumor T cell response,” said Roger Geiger, an immunologist at Università della Svizzera italiana and senior author of the study. In the future, he added, these metabolite-producing bacteria might be part of “a catalog of strains that you need to choose from.”
T cells are one of the ...
