Figure 4.

Manipulating the ability of T cells to withstand metabolic stress or altering the metabolism of tumors can enhance the therapeutic potential of T cell-based therapies. (A) Identifying markers that identify metabolically competent T cells, as well as understanding how small molecule compounds, biologics or receptor ligands could improve T cell metabolism will bring new targets to improve the efficacy of T cell products. (B) Better understanding of how the tumor microenvironment is affected by current therapies could provide new avenues to target both T cell and tumor metabolism to bolster immunotherapies. Enriching metabolically fit T cells during T cell isolation from whole blood or including metabolism modulating agents during TIL and CAR T cell expansion or altering CAR design of T cells could improve the survival of patients treated with cellular therapies.