Iron overload in the tumor microenvironment induces CD8+ T cell ferroptosis and dysfunction
Zhenyu Lin, Huanpeng Chen, Yujing Ke, Hanyue Xiao, Chao Li, Zilong Wu, Huixin Gao, Nanqi Huang, Lijuan Lu, Peng Sun, Yingjie Bian · 2026
Read Iron overload in the tumor microenvironment induces CD8+ T cell ferroptosis and dysfunction by Zhenyu Lin, Huanpeng Chen, Yujing Ke, Hanyue Xiao, Chao Li, Zilong Wu, Huixin Gao, Nanqi Huang, Lijuan Lu, Peng Sun, Yingjie Bian (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13385831.txt.
Description
Zhenyu Lin and co-authors found the tissue around a tumor is loaded with iron. The overload disables the killer T cells sent to fight the cancer. Tumors often leave patients short of iron in the blood, yet the authors measured the tumor surroundings as iron-rich, largely because dying tumor tissue spills its contents. Inside that environment, CD8 T cells take in more iron than they can export and die by ferroptosis, losing their killing power.
The team traced this to two signals acting together: strong receptor stimulation and a tumor-made hormone shut down the cells' iron export channel. Restoring that channel, or mopping up iron with a chelator, kept the T cells alive and restored tumor control. They engineered CAR-T cells overproducing the exporter, and those cells resisted the iron-rich environment and attacked tumors strongly in tests.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Zhenyu Lin, Huanpeng Chen, Yujing Ke, Hanyue Xiao, Chao Li, Zilong Wu, Huixin Gao, Nanqi Huang, Lijuan Lu, Peng Sun, Yingjie Bian |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 85 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |