IMMUNOLOGY2026™ Conference Recordings For Attendees-Burn Baby Burn: Leveraging Fatty Acid Oxidation to Improve CD8+ T cell Efficacy Against Ovarian Cancer.

Burn Baby Burn: Leveraging Fatty Acid Oxidation to Improve CD8+ T cell Efficacy Against Ovarian Cancer.

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Emily Clare Duffy presented her PhD work on improving CD8 T-cell adoptive cell therapy for ovarian cancer by boosting fatty acid oxidation. She explained that tumor microenvironments are nutrient-poor but lipid-rich, which drives T-cell dysfunction and exhaustion. Her lab tested whether exposure to linoleic acid could shift CD8 T cells toward a memory-like state and reduce terminal exhaustion; it did, with a modest increase in mitochondrial spare respiratory capacity. She then paired linoleic acid with fenofibrate, a PPAR-alpha agonist that promotes fatty acid oxidation. Fenofibrate alone produced the strongest memory skewing and lowest exhaustion, while the combination mainly increased fat uptake without clear additive benefit. In ascites-like conditions and in an ID8 ovarian cancer mouse model, fenofibrate-treated T cells infiltrated tumors better and remained less exhausted after transfer, without reducing cytokine production. Overall, fenofibrate appears to give CD8 T cells a metabolic advantage, though survival benefit remains to be shown.

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Date April 16, 2026 9:15 AM - 9:30 AM

Room 157

Session T Cells in Cancer II

Speaker Emily-Claire Duffy

Track Tumor Immunology: Cellular Responses and Tumor Microenvironment (TIME)

Year 2026

Keywords

CD8 T-cell adoptive cell therapy

ovarian cancer

fatty acid oxidation

fenofibrate

T-cell exhaustion

April 16, 2026 9:15 AM - 9:30 AM

157

T Cells in Cancer II

Emily-Claire Duffy

Tumor Immunology: Cellular Responses and Tumor Microenvironment (TIME)

2026