EMBO Molecular Medicine (Sep 2024)

RIG-I is an intracellular checkpoint that limits CD8+ T-cell antitumour immunity

  • Xiaobing Duan,
  • Jiali Hu,
  • Yuncong Zhang,
  • Xiaoguang Zhao,
  • Mingqi Yang,
  • Taoping Sun,
  • Siya Liu,
  • Xin Chen,
  • Juan Feng,
  • Wenting Li,
  • Ze Yang,
  • Yitian Zhang,
  • Xiaowen Lin,
  • Dingjie Liu,
  • Ya Meng,
  • Guang Yang,
  • Qiuping Lin,
  • Guihai Zhang,
  • Haihong Lei,
  • Zhengsheng Yi,
  • Yanyan Liu,
  • Xiaobing Liang,
  • Yujuan Wu,
  • Wenqing Diao,
  • Zesong Li,
  • Haihai Liang,
  • Meixiao Zhan,
  • Hong-Wei Sun,
  • Xian-Yang Li,
  • Ligong Lu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s44321-024-00136-9
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 11
pp. 3005 – 3025

Abstract

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Abstract Retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) is a pattern recognition receptor involved in innate immunity, but its role in adaptive immunity, specifically in the context of CD8+ T-cell antitumour immunity, remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that RIG-I is upregulated in tumour-infiltrating CD8+ T cells, where it functions as an intracellular checkpoint to negatively regulate CD8+ T-cell function and limit antitumour immunity. Mechanistically, the upregulation of RIG-I in CD8+ T cells is induced by activated T cells, and directly inhibits the AKT/glycolysis signalling pathway. In addition, knocking out RIG-I enhances the efficacy of adoptively transferred T cells against solid tumours, and inhibiting RIG-I enhances the response to PD-1 blockade. Overall, our study identifies RIG-I as an intracellular checkpoint and a potential target for alleviating inhibitory constraints on T cells in cancer immunotherapy, either alone or in combination with an immune checkpoint inhibitor.

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