Cited by 413Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and DiseaseCancer Immunotherapy and BiomarkersT-cell and B-cell Immunology

IRE1α–XBP1 controls T cell function in ovarian cancer by regulating mitochondrial activity

Open access
Song, Minkyung, Sandoval, Tito A., Chae, Chang-Suk, Chopra, Sahil, Tan, Chen, Rutkowski, Melanie R., Raundhal, Mahesh, Chaurio, Ricardo A. +17 more·2018·Nature

Abstract

Tumours evade immune control by creating hostile microenvironments that perturb T cell metabolism and effector function 1-4. However, it remains unclear how intra-tumoral T cells integrate and interpret metabolic stress signals. Here we report that ovarian cancer-an aggressive malignancy that is refractory to standard treatments and current immunotherapies 5-8-induces endoplasmic reticulum stress and activates the IRE1α-XBP1 arm of the unfolded protein response 9,10 in T cells to control their mitochondrial respiration and anti-tumour function. In T cells isolated from specimens collected from patients with ovarian cancer, upregulation of XBP1 was associated with decreased infiltration of T cells into tumours and with reduced IFNG mRNA expression. Malignant ascites fluid obtained from patients with ovarian cancer inhibited glucose uptake and caused N-linked protein glycosylation defects in T cells, which triggered IRE1α-XBP1 activation that suppressed mitochondrial activity and IFNγ production. Mechanistically, induction of XBP1 regulated the abundance of glutamine carriers and thus limited the influx of glutamine that is necessary to sustain mitochondrial respiration in T cells under glucose-deprived conditions. Restoring N-linked protein glycosylation, abrogating IRE1α-XBP1 activation or enforcing expression of glutamine transporters enhanced mitochondrial respiration in human T cells exposed to ovarian cancer ascites. XBP1-deficient T cells in the metastatic ovarian cancer milieu exhibited global transcriptional reprogramming and improved effector capacity. Accordingly, mice that bear ovarian cancer and lack XBP1 selectively in T cells demonstrate superior anti-tumour immunity, delayed malignant progression and increased overall survival. Controlling endoplasmic reticulum stress or targeting IRE1α-XBP1 signalling may help to restore the metabolic fitness and anti-tumour capacity of T cells in cancer hosts.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41586-018-0597-x

Cites

42 of 42 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Both oxidative and ER stress have been shown to contribute to T cell dysfunction across different tumor types.

    “Even though both oxidative and ER stress have been shown to contribute to T cell dysfunction across different tumor types (44-51),”

    From Bile acid synthesis impedes tumor-specific T cell responses during liver cancer (2025) · cites this paper as [47]

    The Abstract reports that ovarian cancer induces ER stress in T cells and suppresses their mitochondrial activity and anti-tumor function; Extended Data Figure 9 also links ER stress to T cell dysfunction. The cited paper does not establish a contribution from oxidative stress or show these effects across different tumor types. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Song, M., Sandoval, T. A., Chae, C.-S., Chopra, S., Tan, C., Rutkowski, M. R., Raundhal, M., Chaurio, R. A., Payne, K. K., Konrad, C., Bettigole, S. E., Shin, H. R., Crowley, M. J. P., Cerliani, J. P., Kossenkov, A. V., Motorykin, I., Zhang, S., Manfredi, G., Zamarin, D., Holcomb, K., Rodriguez, P. C., Rabinovich, G. A., Conejo-Garcia, J. R., Glimcher, L. H., & Cubillos-Ruiz, J. R.
Affiliations
  • Weill Cornell Medicine (US)
  • University of Virginia (US)
  • Brigham and Women's Hospital (US)
  • Moffitt Cancer Center (US)
  • Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (AR)
  • The Wistar Institute (US)
  • Cornell University (US)
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (US)
Corresponding author
Glimcher, Laurie H.
Venue
Nature
Published
2018-10
Volume
562
Issue
7727
Pages
423-428
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W2896875037
Cited by
413
References
42
Citations by year
2026: 47 · 2025: 64 · 2024: 58 · 2023: 50 · 2022: 66 · 2021: 51 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 3 · 2013: 1
FWCI
17.70
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • Americanae (AECID Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Defense (W81XWH1610438, W81XWH)
  • Ovarian Cancer Research Fund
  • Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance
  • National Institutes of Health (W81XWH, 1s10od017992-01)
  • Weill Cornell Medical College
  • Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C-AACR-IRG-03-16)
  • National Cancer Institute (R01CA112663, T32CA009140, R01CA184185, P30CA008748, R50CA211199, P30CA010815)
  • Ovarian Cancer Academy
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and Disease
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › T-cell and B-cell Immunology
Keywords
unfolded protein response, endoplasmic reticulum stress, ovarian cancer, T cell metabolism, mitochondrial respiration, glutamine transporter, N-glycosylation, glucose deprivation, tumor microenvironment, T cell exhaustion, antitumor immunity, interferon-gamma, malignant ascites, T cell reprogramming
MeSH terms
X-Box Binding Protein 1, Animals, Ascites, Endoribonucleases, Female, Glucose, Glutamine, Glycosylation, Humans, Interferon-gamma, Mitochondria, Neoplasm Metastasis, Neoplasm Transplantation, Ovarian Neoplasms, T-Lymphocytes, Signal Transduction, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, Survival Rate, Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases, Disease Progression, Cell Respiration, Tumor Escape, Amino Acid Transport Systems, Basic, Mice, Unfolded Protein Response, Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review