Immunotherapy has made a huge difference in the fight against leukaemia. Today, doctors have a vast library of specific immune activating drugs, antibodies and even reprogrammed immune cells. Most of these treatments rely on the activity of the so-called effector T-cells, members of the immune system that can kill cancer cells when found.

However, tumours often modify its surroundings – the tumour microenvironment – to make it harsh for T-cells to be active, leading to tumour growth. Scientists call this “immune evasion” and understanding how they do it, and acting upon it, can increase the efficacy of immunotherapy beyond its current limits.

With this objective, the new REVEAL project, led by Dr. Natividad Alquézar-Artieda and supervised by Dr. Lucas Pontel, from the Cancer Metabolism Lab at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, will try to understand how tumours foster immune evasion from a novel perspective: metabolism. The research is funded by the European Hematology Association (EHA) in the 2025 kick-off grants program.

Dr. Alquézar-Artieda, a Carreras Leaders postdoctoral researcher, is confident that REVEAL will “find ways to improve the efficacy of immunotherapy from a metabolic point of view, both from tumour cells and the microenvironment, a non-addressed issue so far”. This project is her first step as an independent researcher and might open the door to future EHA or other Junior Research grants, setting the grounds for a long-term career.

The REVEAL project

The research team hypothesized that the high metabolic rate of cancer cells could deplete key elements for T-cell activation – nutrients and signalling molecules – from the tumour microenvironment, resulting in low immune activity around it. The hypothesis is grounded by the fact that alterations in some transporters – proteins that move molecules back and forth from cells – are indeed related to poor prognosis in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.

To test the hypothesis, Dr. Alquézar-Artieda and Dr. Pontel will use an in vitro culture model of an AML tumour with some crucial resident cells, including T-cells, and aspects of its microenvironment to test whether alterations in transporters known for being related to AML progression, can actually affect T-cell function and promote immune escape.

The first results will see the light by mid-2026 and, hopefully, will open new perspectives in the fight against leukaemia and, perhaps, other cancer types.