Microbiota-derived butyrate promotes a FOXO1-induced stemness program and preserves CD8⁺ T cell immunity against melanoma

Annabell Bachem, Michele Clarke, Geraldine Kong, Ilaryia Tarasova, Lachlan Dryburgh, Lindsay Kosack, Ariane R. Lee, Lewis D. Newland, Teagan Wagner, Emma Bawden, Kah Min Yap, Michael D. Wilson, Sven Engel, Kayla R. Wilson, Brendan E. Russ, Kshitij Tandon, Peter Kar Han Lau, Grant McArthur, Vanessa R. Marcelino, Paul A. Beavis, Sammy Bedoui

Immunity | Volume 58 | Issue 11 | Pages 2799-2813.e8

A range of microbiota species correlate with improved cancer outcomes in patients and confer protection in pre-clinical mouse models. Here, we examined how microbiota regulate CD8⁺ T cell immunity against melanoma. Spontaneous control of cutaneous melanoma in mice correlated with metabolic pathways required for microbial synthesis of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) shared between several microbiota species. Diet-induced enforcement of SCFA production by the gut microbiota reduced melanoma progression and enriched tumor-specific stem-like CD127⁺CD8⁺ T cells in the tumor-draining lymph node (tdLN). The SCFA butyrate induced a FOXO1-driven stemness program and directly promoted the differentiation of tumor-specific CD127⁺CD8⁺ T cells in the tdLN. Metabolic flux modeling predicted enhanced microbial production of butyrate in melanoma patients with complete therapeutic responses to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), and butyrate induced transcriptional features of ICB responsiveness in CD8⁺ T cells. Our findings suggest a critical role for metabolite production shared across several microbiota species in the preservation of stem-like tumor-specific CD8⁺ T cells.