Acidic pH can attenuate immune killing through inactivation of perforin

Cytotoxic lymphocytes are crucial to our immune system, primarily eliminating virus-infected or cancerous cells via perforin/granzyme killing. Perforin forms transmembrane pores in the plasma membrane, allowing granzymes to enter the target cell cytosol and trigger apoptosis. The prowess of cytotoxic lymphocytes to efficiently eradicate target cells has been widely harnessed in immunotherapies against haematological cancers. Despite efforts to achieve a similar outcome against solid tumours, the immunosuppressive and acidic tumour microenvironment poses a persistent obstacle. Using different types of effector cells, including therapeutically relevant anti-CD19 CAR T cells, we demonstrate that the acidic pH typically found in solid tumours hinders the efficacy of immune therapies by impeding perforin pore formation within the immunological synapse. A nanometre-scale study of purified recombinant perforin undergoing oligomerization reveals that pore formation is inhibited specifically by preventing the formation of a transmembrane β-barrel. The absence of perforin pore formation directly prevents target cell death. This finding uncovers a novel layer of immune effector inhibition that must be considered in the development of effective immunotherapies for solid tumours.