TY - JOUR T1 - Tumors induce <em>de novo</em> steroid biosynthesis in T cells to evade immunity JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/471359 SP - 471359 AU - Bidesh Mahata AU - Jhuma Pramanik AU - Louise van der Weyden AU - Gozde Kar AU - Angela Riedel AU - Nuno A. Fonseca AU - Kousik Kundu AU - Edward Ryder AU - Graham Duddy AU - Izabela Walczak AU - Sarah Davidson AU - Klaus Okkenhaug AU - David J. Adams AU - Jacqueline D. Shields AU - Sarah A. Teichmann Y1 - 2018/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/12/09/471359.abstract N2 - Tumors subvert immune cell function to evade immune responses1, and the mechanisms of tumor immune evasion are incompletely understood. Here we show that tumors induce de novo steroidogenesis in T lymphocytes to evade anti-tumor immunity. Using a novel transgenic fluorescent reporter mouse line we identify and characterize de novo steroidogenic T cells. Genetic ablation of T cell steroidogenesis restricts primary tumor growth and metastatic dissemination in mouse models. Steroidogenic T cells dysregulate anti-tumor immunity, which can be restored by inhibiting the steroidogenesis pathway. This study demonstrates that T cell de novo steroidogenesis is a cause of anti-tumor immunosuppression and a druggable target. ER -