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He J, Miao R, Chen Y, Wang H, Liu M. The dual role of regulatory T cells in hepatitis B virus infection and related hepatocellular carcinoma. Immunology 2024; 171:445-463. [PMID: 38093705 DOI: 10.1111/imm.13738] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2023] [Accepted: 11/27/2023] [Indexed: 03/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major contributor to cancer-related deaths worldwide. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major etiologic factor leading to HCC. While there have been significant advancements in controlling HBV replication, achieving a complete cure for HBV-related HCC (HBV-HCC) remains an intricate challenge. HBV persistence is attributed to a myriad of mechanisms, encompassing both innate and adaptive immune responses. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are pivotal in upholding immune tolerance and modulating excessive immune activation. During HBV infection, Tregs mediate specific T cell suppression, thereby contributing to both persistent infection and the mitigation of liver inflammatory responses. Studies have demonstrated an augmented expression of circulating and intrahepatic Tregs in HBV-HCC, which correlates with impaired CD8+ T cell function. Consequently, Tregs play a dual role in the context of HBV infection and the progression of HBV-HCC. In this comprehensive review, we discuss pertinent studies concerning Tregs in HBV infection, HBV-related cirrhosis and HCC. Furthermore, we summarize Treg responses to antiviral therapy and provide Treg-targeted therapies specific to HBV and HCC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinan He
- Department of Gastroenterology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Rui Miao
- Guangzhou Women and Children Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Yao Chen
- Department of Internal Medicine, Northeast Yunnan Regional Central Hospital, Zhaotong, Yunan, China
| | - Han Wang
- Department of Gastroenterology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
- Hubei Key Laboratory of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Diseases, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Mei Liu
- Department of Gastroenterology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
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Ye X, Yu Y, Zheng X, Ma H. Clinical immunotherapy in pancreatic cancer. Cancer Immunol Immunother 2024; 73:64. [PMID: 38430289 PMCID: PMC10908626 DOI: 10.1007/s00262-024-03632-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2023] [Accepted: 01/09/2024] [Indexed: 03/03/2024]
Abstract
Pancreatic cancer remains a challenging disease with limited treatment options, resulting in high mortality rates. The predominant approach to managing pancreatic cancer patients continues to be systemic cytotoxic chemotherapy. Despite substantial advancements in immunotherapy strategies for various cancers, their clinical utility in pancreatic cancer has proven less effective and durable. Whether administered as monotherapy, employing immune checkpoint inhibitors, tumor vaccines, chimeric antigen receptors T cells, or in combination with conventional chemoradiotherapy, the clinical outcomes remain underwhelming. Extensive preclinical experiments and clinical trials in the realm of pancreatic cancer have provided valuable insights into the complexities of immunotherapy. Chief among the hurdles are the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, limited immunogenicity, and the inherent heterogeneity of pancreatic cancer. In this comprehensive review, we provide an overview and critical analysis of current clinical immunotherapy strategies for pancreatic cancer, emphasizing their endeavors to overcome immunotherapy resistance. Particular focus is placed on strategies aimed at reshaping the immunosuppressive microenvironment and enhancing T cell-mediated tumor cell killing. Ultimately, through deeper elucidation of the underlying pathogenic mechanisms of pancreatic cancer and the refinement of therapeutic approaches, we anticipate breakthroughs that will pave the way for more effective treatments in this challenging disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaorong Ye
- Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230001, Anhui Province, People's Republic of China
| | - Yue Yu
- Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230001, Anhui Province, People's Republic of China.
| | - Xiaohu Zheng
- Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230001, Anhui Province, People's Republic of China.
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at Microscale, The CAS Key Laboratory of Innate Immunity and Chronic Disease, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Science and Biomedicine of IHM, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, People's Republic of China.
- Key Laboratory of Quantitative Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, People's Republic of China.
| | - Hongdi Ma
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at Microscale, The CAS Key Laboratory of Innate Immunity and Chronic Disease, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Science and Biomedicine of IHM, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, People's Republic of China.
- Department of Pediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230001, Anhui Province, People's Republic of China.
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Abstract
For our immune system to contain or eliminate malignant solid tumours, both myeloid and lymphoid haematopoietic cells must not only extravasate from the bloodstream into the tumour tissue but also further migrate to various specialized niches of the tumour microenvironment to functionally interact with each other, with non-haematopoietic stromal cells and, ultimately, with cancer cells. These interactions regulate local immune cell survival, proliferative expansion, differentiation and their execution of pro-tumour or antitumour effector functions, which collectively determine the outcome of spontaneous or therapeutically induced antitumour immune responses. None of these interactions occur randomly but are orchestrated and critically depend on migratory guidance cues provided by chemokines, a large family of chemotactic cytokines, and their receptors. Understanding the functional organization of the tumour immune microenvironment inevitably requires knowledge of the multifaceted roles of chemokines in the recruitment and positioning of its cellular constituents. Gaining such knowledge will not only generate new insights into the mechanisms underlying antitumour immunity or immune tolerance but also inform the development of biomarkers (or 'biopatterns') based on spatial tumour tissue analyses, as well as novel strategies to therapeutically engineer immune responses in patients with cancer. Here we will discuss recent observations on the role of chemokines in the tumour microenvironment in the context of our knowledge of their physiological functions in development, homeostasis and antimicrobial responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thorsten R Mempel
- Center for Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Julia K Lill
- Center for Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Lukas M Altenburger
- Center for Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
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Trametinib improves Treg selectivity of anti-CCR4 antibody by regulating CCR4 expression in CTLs in oral squamous cell carcinoma. Sci Rep 2022; 12:21678. [PMID: 36522365 PMCID: PMC9755268 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-22773-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2022] [Accepted: 10/19/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Regulatory T-cells (Tregs) play a major role in suppressing anti-tumor immune responses. Mogamulizumab, an anti-CC chemokine receptor type 4 (CCR4) monoclonal antibody, depletes effector Tregs (eTregs). However, the clinical efficacy of mogamulizumab was limited in phase Ia/Ib studies for solid tumors (NCT01929486); the finding suggests that mogamulizumab may also deplete beneficial CCR4+CD8+ T-cells in patients. Therefore, we focused on CTLs and aimed to identify a way to protect CCR4+ CTLs. Here, we evaluated the association of CCR4 expression in cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) with antigen and cytokine stimulations and kinase inhibition using cytomegalovirus antigen instead of tumor antigen. CCR4 expression in CTLs was induced by antigen stimulation (mean 3.14-29.0%), enhanced by transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) (mean 29.0-51.2%), and downregulated by trametinib with (mean 51.2-11.4%) or without TGF-β1 treatment (mean 29.0-6.98%). Phosphorylation of ERK in CD8+ T-cells was suppressed by trametinib. Regarding the effect on immunological function of CTL, trametinib reduced cytokine production but not affected cytotoxicity. Importantly, trametinib alleviated CTL reduction by anti-CCR4 antibody without affecting eTreg depletion because CCR4 expression in eTregs was not downregulated. In conclusion, combination therapy with trametinib may improve the clinical efficacy of mogamulizumab.
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Zhao Y, Bai Y, Shen M, Li Y. Therapeutic strategies for gastric cancer targeting immune cells: Future directions. Front Immunol 2022; 13:992762. [PMID: 36225938 PMCID: PMC9549957 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.992762] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2022] [Accepted: 08/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Gastric cancer (GC) is a malignancy with a high incidence and mortality, and the emergence of immunotherapy has brought survival benefits to GC patients. Compared with traditional therapy, immunotherapy has the advantages of durable response, long-term survival benefits, and lower toxicity. Therefore, targeted immune cells are the most promising therapeutic strategy in the field of oncology. In this review, we introduce the role and significance of each immune cell in the tumor microenvironment of GC and summarize the current landscape of immunotherapy in GC, which includes immune checkpoint inhibitors, adoptive cell therapy (ACT), dendritic cell (DC) vaccines, reduction of M2 tumor-associated macrophages (M2 TAMs), N2 tumor-associated neutrophils (N2 TANs), myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), effector regulatory T cells (eTregs), and regulatory B cells (Bregs) in the tumor microenvironment and reprogram TAMs and TANs into tumor killer cells. The most widely used immunotherapy strategies are the immune checkpoint inhibitor programmed cell death 1/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) antibody, cytotoxic T lymphocyte–associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) antibody, and chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) in ACT, and these therapeutic strategies have significant anti-tumor efficacy in solid tumors and hematological tumors. Targeting other immune cells provides a new direction for the immunotherapy of GC despite the relatively weak clinical data, which have been confirmed to restore or enhance anti-tumor immune function in preclinical studies and some treatment strategies have entered the clinical trial stage, and it is expected that more and more effective immune cell–based therapeutic methods will be developed and applied.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yan Zhao
- Department of Oncology and Hematology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Yuansong Bai
- Department of Oncology and Hematology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Meili Shen
- Department of Radiation Oncology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
- *Correspondence: Yapeng Li, ; Meili Shen,
| | - Yapeng Li
- The National and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Synthesis Technology of High Performance Polymer, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, China
- *Correspondence: Yapeng Li, ; Meili Shen,
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