Journal: bioRxiv

Article Title: CMTM6-Silencing Microbial Immunotherapy Reprograms PDAC Tumors and Restores T-cell Function

doi: 10.64898/2026.01.26.701790

Figure Lengend Snippet: ( a, b ) Peripheral blood immune profiling in the KPC flank model. KPC cells (1.0 x 10 6 ) cells were inoculated into the right flanks of 6-8-week-old C57BL/6J mice. Once tumors reach the target volume of 80-120 mm³ mice were randomized to treatment group (n=8/group) and treated with PBS or lyophilized iSTORM (iSTORM-L) at 5×10 7 CFU or 1×10 8 CFU/mouse, administered intraperitoneally, one bolus every 3 days, 4 doses total). Immune profiling in peripheral blood collected 15/16 days post the last treatment (23/24 days after the first dose) demonstrates that iSTROM fully retains immune-stimulatory activities and elicits a graded, dose-dependent activation of circulating T-cell compartments. Increasing iSTORM-L doses expanded activated CD4 + T cells (CD44 + CD69 + and ICOS + ) while concomitantly reducing exhaustion-associated PD-1 + and PD-1 + LAG3 + CD4 + subsets ( a ). CD8 + T cells displayed a parallel activation program, characterized by robust expansion of ICOS⁺ effector-like CD8 + T cells and uniformly low frequencies of PD-1 + or PD-1 + TIM3 + exhausted populations across all doses ( b ). c ) iSTORM-L induced dose-dependent tumor growth suppression in the KPC mice above. Tumor volumes (caliper measurements) were measured twice per week. Bar and whisker represent means and standard deviation, respectively.

Article Snippet: KPC cells (Kerafast, catalog# EUP012-FP, MA, United States) were maintained in DMEM-High Glucose (Gibco TM , catalog# 11965092, NY, United States) supplemented with 10% FBS (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog# F4135, MO, United States).

Techniques: Activation Assay, Whisker Assay, Standard Deviation