Adaptive plasticity of IL-10(+) and IL-35(+) T(reg) cells cooperatively promotes tumor T cell exhaustion

Regulatory T cells (T(reg) cells) maintain host self-tolerance but are a major barrier to effective cancer immunotherapy. T(reg) cells subvert beneficial anti-tumor immunity by modulating inhibitory receptor expression on tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs); however, the underlying mediators and mechanisms have remained elusive. Here we found that the cytokines IL-10 and IL-35 (Ebi3–IL-12α heterodimer) were divergently expressed by T(reg) cell subpopulations in the tumor microenvironment (TME) and cooperatively promoted intratumoral T cell exhaustion by modulating multiple inhibitory receptor expression and exhaustion-associated transcriptomic signature of CD8(+) TILs. While expression of BLIMP1 (encoded by Prdm1) was a common target; IL-10 and IL-35 differentially affected effector T cell versus memory T cell fates, respectively, highlighting their differential, partially overlapping but non-redundant regulation of anti-tumor immunity. Our results reveal previously unappreciated cooperative roles for T(reg) cell-derived IL-10 and IL-35 in promoting BLIMP1-dependent exhaustion of CD8(+) TILs that limits effective anti-tumor immunity.