Improving Cancer Treatment by Combining Metabolic Inhibition with Immunotherapy

This work was sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research via a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF). I investigated the immunological effects of inhibiting pyruvate metabolism in a mouse model of triple negative breast cancer. We found increased lactate production in response to pyruvate metabolism inhibition as well as an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. As lactate is a known immunosuppressive metabolite, this finding informed a future mouse study investigating potential synergy between lactate metabolism inhibitors and pyruvate metabolism modulation