Cholesterol atlas of tumor microenvironment provides route to improved CAR-T therapy.

Abstract

Cholesterol is essential for the ability of cytotoxic Tcells to eliminate cancer cells. In this issue of Cancer Cell, Yan etal. reveal how intra-tumoral cholesterol deficiency contributes to Tcell exhaustion by inhibiting mTORC1 signaling. Moreover, they demonstrate that increasing cholesterol levels in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells by blocking liver X receptor (LXR) leads to improved anti-tumor function.