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. 2025 Feb 7;387(6734):eadj3020.
doi: 10.1126/science.adj3020. Epub 2025 Feb 7.

Nutrient-driven histone code determines exhausted CD8+ T cell fates

Shixin Ma  1 , Michael S Dahabieh  2 , Thomas H Mann  1 , Steven Zhao  1 , Bryan McDonald  1 , Won-Suk Song  3 , H Kay Chung  1   4   5 , Yagmur Farsakoglu  1 , Lizmarie Garcia-Rivera  1 , Filipe Araujo Hoffmann  1 , Shihao Xu  1 , Victor Y Du  1 , Dan Chen  1 , Jesse Furgiuele  1 , Michael A LaPorta  1 , Emily Jacobs  1 , Lisa M DeCamp  2 , Brandon M Oswald  2 , Ryan D Sheldon  2   6 , Abigail E Ellis  2   6 , Longwei Liu  7 , Peixiang He  8 , Yingxiao Wang  7 , Cholsoon Jang  3 , Russell G Jones  2 , Susan M Kaech  1
Affiliations

Nutrient-driven histone code determines exhausted CD8+ T cell fates

Shixin Ma et al. Science. .

Abstract

Exhausted T cells (TEX) in cancer and chronic viral infections undergo metabolic and epigenetic remodeling, impairing their protective capabilities. However, the impact of nutrient metabolism on epigenetic modifications that control TEX differentiation remains unclear. We showed that TEX cells shifted from acetate to citrate metabolism by down-regulating acetyl-CoA synthetase 2 (ACSS2) while maintaining ATP-citrate lyase (ACLY) activity. This metabolic switch increased citrate-dependent histone acetylation, mediated by histone acetyltransferase KAT2A-ACLY interactions, at TEX signature genes while reducing acetate-dependent histone acetylation, dependent on p300-ACSS2 complexes, at effector and memory T cell genes. Nuclear ACSS2 overexpression or ACLY inhibition prevented TEX differentiation and enhanced tumor-specific T cell responses. These findings unveiled a nutrient-instructed histone code governing CD8+ T cell differentiation, with implications for metabolic- and epigenetic-based T cell therapies.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: SMK is on the scientific advisory boards and has equity in EvolveImmune Therapeutics, Affini-T Therapeutics, Arvinas, and Pfizer. RGJ is a scientific advisor for Agios Pharmaceuticals and Servier Pharmaceuticals and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Immunomet Therapeutics. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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