Overview

• A peer-reviewed study in Communications Biology reports that blood exosomes from people with obesity-driven diabetes reprogram immune cells inside human breast tumor models.
• Researchers used patient-derived organoids that preserve native tumor-infiltrating immune cells and profiled responses with single-cell RNA sequencing.
• Exosomes from donors with diabetes, who did not have cancer, weakened anti-tumor immune activity and promoted more aggressive tumor behavior in the organoids.
• The authors identify this as the first direct link between diabetes-related exosomes and suppressed immune activity inside human breast tumors.
• The findings may help explain weaker responses to immunotherapy and, given the large diabetic and prediabetic population, the NIH-supported team calls for in vivo and clinical studies before any change to care.