Fig. 1: Physical and chemical properties of the TME participating in T cell exhaustion.
From: Tumor microenvironment squeezes out the juice from T cells
If TCR chronic triggering is a common feature between chronic infection and tumor, several physical and chemical parameters within the TME also participate in tumor-specific T cell exhaustion. Mechanical stress via the Piezo1/Osr2 axis, hyper osmolarity through NFAT5 activity or hypoxia-induced mitochondrial stress all participate in the induction and maintenance of the T cell exhaustion program with transcriptional and epigenetic rearrangements. Made with Biorender.
