IL-15-induced lymphocytes as adjuvant cellular immunotherapy for gastric cancer

Carrot Juice Intake Affects the Cytokine and Chemokine Response in Human Blood after Ex Vivo Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Inflammation

In vitro and animal studies have shown that carrot juice containing bioactive natural products, such as falcarinol (FaOH) and falcarindiol (FaDOH), can affect inflammation. The present study was designed to test whether oral intake of carrot juice containing the bioactive acetylenic oxylipins FaOH and FaDOH affects mediators of acute inflammation or the innate immune response in human blood. Carrot juice (500 mL) was administered orally to healthy volunteers, and blood samples were drawn before and 1 h after juice intake. Next, the blood samples were split in two, and one sample was stimulated ex vivo with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and incubated at 37 °C for 24 h. The concentrations of 44 inflammatory cytokines and chemokines were examined using multiplex electrochemiluminescence analysis. In blood samples not stimulated with LPS, a significant increase in IL-15 was measured 1 h after carrot juice intake. Cytokines like IFN-ɣ, IL-12/IL-23(p40), IL-23, IL-17A, IL-17B, IL-17D, and IL-22 were significantly increased in LPS-stimulated blood samples after carrot juice intake. The upregulation of the immunostimulating cytokines belonging to the IL-23/IL-17 Th17 axis suggests that carrot juice intake could benefit diseases where inflammation plays a role, like in the early stages of diabetes or cancers.

Current progress and challenges of immunotherapy in gastric cancer: A focus on CAR-T cells therapeutic approach

Gastric cancer (GC) is a severe malignancy, accounting for the third most common cancer death worldwide. Despite the development of chemo-radiation therapy, there has not been sufficient survival advantage in patients with GC who were treated by these methods. GC immunogenicity is hampered by a highly immunosuppressive microenvironment; therefore, further understanding of the molecular biology of GC is the potential to achieve new therapeutic strategies in GC therapy, including specific immunotherapy. Current immunotherapies are mainly based on cytokines, immune checkpoints, monoclonal antibodies (mAb), bispecific antibodies (BisAbs), antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR). Immunotherapy has made significant progress in the treatment of GC, so that studies show that nivolumab as a programmed death 1 (PD1) inhibitor has proper safety and effectiveness as a third-line treatment for GC patients. Multiple monoclonal antibodies like ramucirumab and claudiximab were effective in treating GC patients, especially in combination with other treatments. Despite the challenges of CAR therapy in solid tumors, CAR therapy targets various GC cells targets; among them, intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 CAR-T cell and CLDN18.2 CAR-T cell have shown promising results. Although responses to all these treatments are encouraging and in some cases, durable, these successes are not seen in all treated patients. The present review represents the development of various immunotherapies especially CAR-T cell therapy, its current use, clinical data in GC, and their limitations.

Combining of immunotherapeutic approaches with chemotherapy for treatment of gastric cancer: Achievements and limitations

Evidence reveals that gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common malignancy in humans, and about 770,000 people die from this cancer yearly. It has been reported that new cases and deaths from GC are more common in men than women. Therapeutic approaches, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, have been common for treating GC. Nevertheless, due to the complications and limitations of these methods, researchers use novel approaches, such as immunotherapeutic or target therapies, to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment in patients with metastatic GC. Studies have shown that monotherapy is usually associated with unpromising outcomes, and combination therapy can be a more practical option for treating metastatic GC. Therefore, to clarify different aspects of chemotherapy and immunotherapy in patients with metastatic GC, this review discussed the achievements and challenges of combining immunotherapeutic methods with chemotherapeutic agents.

Antibody-Dependent Cell-Mediated Cytotoxicity (ADCC) Using T Cells With NK-Like Phenotype (T-NK Cells) in Combination With Avelumab, an Anti-PD-L1 Antibody

Though the PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor avelumab has shown efficacy in the treatment of some types of cancer, improved treatment strategies are desperately needed. We evaluated whether combined treatment with avelumab and adoptively transferred T-NK cells can provide enhanced anti-cancer effects for treating PD-L1-expressing tumors. Our results demonstrate that avelumab specifically targets tumor cells with high PD-L1 expression, and that cytolytic effects are mediated by T-NK effector cells cultured from patient peripheral blood monocytic cell populations. The effects were dependent on CD16 and the perforin/granzyme pathway, supporting a role for the T-NK subpopulation. In vivo assays verified the efficacy of T-NK cells in combination with avelumab in reducing tumor growth. Furthermore, T-NK + avelumab prolonged survival in a mouse orthotopic xenograft model. Collectively, our findings provide a basis for the combined use of adoptively transferred T-NK cells with avelumab as a novel strategy for cancer treatment.