Remodeling Translation Primes CD8+ T Cell Antitumor Immunity

The requisites for protein translation in T cells are poorly understood and how translation shapes the antitumor efficacy of T cells is unknown. Here we demonstrated that IL15-conditioned T cells were primed by the metabolic energy sensor AMPK to undergo diminished translation relative to effector T cells. However, we showed that IL15-conditioned T cells exhibited a remarkable capacity to enhance their protein translation in tumors, that which effector T cells were unable to duplicate. Studying the modulation of translation for applications in cancer immunotherapy revealed that direct ex vivo pharmacological inhibition of translation elongation primed robust T cell antitumor immunity. Our work elucidates that altering protein translation in CD8+ T cells can shape their antitumor capability.