Hiring in life sciences? Share your open positions with our professional community. Read more Close

Advertisement

Tryptophan degradation by intestinal Bacteroides induces anti-tumor immunity and limits melanoma growth.

Created on 15 Jul 2026

Authors

Ximena Diaz Olea, Kristin Beede, Gabriel Pereira, David Scott, Christopher Petucci, Eric Martens, Dmitri Rodionov, Aagam Shah, Miguel P Martinez, Hyungsoo Kim, Ashok Kumar Sharma, Anthony Martin, Tongwu Zhang, Mark B Faries, Omid Hamid, Suzanne Devkota, Andrei Osterman, Simon Knott, Emile E Voest, Nadim J Ajami, Jennifer Wargo, Amanda E Ramer-Tait, Ze'ev A Ronai

Published in

Cell reports. Medicine. Pages 102921. Jul 14, 2026. Epub Jul 14, 2026.

Abstract

Study of gut microbiota control of anti-tumor immunity (ATI) identifies Bacteroides rodentium and the human-related Bacteroides uniformis species to be capable of inducing ATI and limiting melanoma development in germ-free (GF), complex microbiome, or wild-type (WT) mice. Enhanced CD8+ T cell infiltration within tumors of mice harboring B. rodentium coincides with increased expression of immune-stimulating pathways. Metabolomic analyses identify lower tryptophan levels in the cecal samples of GF mice harboring B. rodentium. In silico genomic reconstruction reveals that B. rodentium and B. uniformis harbor tryptophanase A (TnaA) and aromatic aminotransferase genes, which degrade tryptophan to indoles. Administration of B. uniformis harboring TnaA mutant fails to inhibit melanoma growth. Notably, administration of indoles effectively induces ATI and inhibits melanoma development. Correspondingly, the levels of bacterially encoded tryptophan-degrading enzymes are higher in cohorts of patients with melanoma responding to immunotherapy. These findings identify indoles as tryptophan breakdown products capable of inducing ATI resulting in melanoma inhibition.

PMID:
42447866
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 15 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Advertisement

Stats

  • Community rating n/a 0 votes
  • Reviewers' rating n/a 0 votes
  • Your rating

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

  • Recommendations n/a n/a positive of 0 vote(s)
  • Views 1
  • Comments 0

Recommended by

  • No recommendations yet.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Advertisement