Balancing cancer immunotherapy and immune-related adverse events: The emerging role of regulatory T cells.

Balancing cancer immunotherapy and immune-related adverse events: The emerging role of regulatory T cells. J Autoimmun. 2019 Aug 14;:102310 Authors: Alissafi T, Hatzioannou A, Legaki AI, Varveri A, Verginis P Abstract Advances in our understanding οf tumor immunity have prompted a paradigm shift in oncology, with the emergence of immunotherapy, where therapeutic agents are used to target immune cells rather than cancer cells. A real breakthrough in the field of immunotherapy came with the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), namely antagonistic antibodies that block key immune regulatory molecules (checkpoint molecules), such as cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4), programmed cell death protein (PD-1) and its ligand PD-L1, that under physiologic conditions suppress T cell effector function. However, despite the enormous success, a significant proportion of patients do not respond, while responses are frequently accompanied by life-threatening autoimmune related adverse events (irAEs). A major impediment in the effectiveness of ICI immunotherapy is the tumoral resistance, which is dependent on the immunosuppressive nature of tumor microenvironment (TME). Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are among the most abundant suppressive cells in the TME and their presence has been correlated with tumor progression, invasiveness as well as metastasis. Tregs are characterized by the expression of the transcription factor Foxp3 an...
Source: Journal of Autoimmunity - Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Tags: J Autoimmun Source Type: research