Lili Yang/LinkedIn
May 25, 2025, 13:27
Lili Yang Explored How Solid Tumors Disarm CD8 T Cells via Serotonin Transporter in Cell Press Study – PICI
Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Prozac just helped T cells flip the script on solid tumors. In a Cell Press paper released today, PICI Investigator Lili Yang, PhD (UCLA Health) shows how solid tumors disarm CD8 T cells: they over‑express the serotonin transporter SERT, siphoning serotonin and throttling immune power.
Dr. Yang’s team blocked SERT with two familiar generics—fluoxetine (Prozac) and citalopram (Celexa)—and saw striking results in rigorous mouse and human xenograft models:
→ Tumor burden fell by more than 50 %, while CD8 T cells gained stronger effector function and memory across melanoma, breast, prostate, colon and bladder models.
→ SSRI + anti‑PD‑1 delivered deeper control, including complete remissions in subsets of melanoma‑ and colon‑cancer mice.
→ Analyses of patient datasets reveal high SERT expression predicts poorer survival in multiple cancers, spotlighting SERT as a drug‑ready immune checkpoint.
Because selective serotonin‑reuptake inhibitors carry decades of safety data, repurposing them could speed up a first‑in‑human study now being designed by Dr. Yang and team. This is exactly the kind of audacious, outcomes-focused thinking PICI is built to advance—from bench to patient impact.”
Foundation for Autoimmune Cancer Support (FACS-ASPIRE) shared this post on LinkedIn, adding:
“Repurposing drugs and even older drugs- is a quicker and more cost effective way to help patients now!
SSRIs may have syngeristic effect of anti- Pd1.
Thus, the anxiety/depression treatments could help the cancer treatments be more effective…. That is very powerful !”
Title: Serotonin transporter inhibits antitumor immunity through regulating the intratumoral serotonin axis
Authors: Bo Li, James Elsten-Brown, Miao Li, Enbo Zhu, Zhe Li, Yuning Chen, Elliot Kang, Feiyang Ma, Jennifer Chiang, Yan-Ruide Li, Yichen Zhu, Jie Huang, Audrey Fung, Quentin Scarborough, Robin Cadd, Jin J. Zhou, Arnold I. Chin, Matteo Pellegrini, Lili Yang
Read Full Article on Cell.
More posts featuring Immunotherapy on OncoDaily.
Arnold I. Chin
Audrey Fung
Bo Li
cancer
citalopram (Celexa)
Elliot Kang
Enbo Zhu
Feiyang Ma
fluoxetine (Prozac)
Foundation for Autoimmune Cancer Support (FACS-ASPIRE)
James Elsten-Brown
Jennifer Chiang
Jie Huang
Jin J. Zhou
Lili Yang
Matteo Pellegrini
Miao Li
OncoDaily
Oncology
Quentin Scarborough
Robin Cadd
UCLA Health
Yan-Ruide Li
Yichen Zhu
Yuning Chen
Zhe Li
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