The high (I)COSt of costimulation for exhausted T cells

Maria N de Menezes1, Ian A Parish1

  • 1Cancer Immunology Program, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Immunity
|August 13, 2025
PubMed

ICOS agonists are being investigated for cancer immunotherapy based on the idea that they will reinvigorate exhausted CD8+ T cell anti-cancer immunity. Humblin et al. unexpectedly find the opposite-that CD8+ T cell-intrinsic ICOS expression restrains rather than promotes exhausted CD8+ T cell function in both chronic viral infection and tumor models.

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