Abstract
Simple SummaryA new class of drugs, termed Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors, has revolutionized cancer therapy during the last few years. Unfortunately, these drugs are only effective for a subset of patients and cancer types. Recent work has suggested that how well cancer cells present some of their molecules to the immune system is critical for patient responses to immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Here, we review the role of the biochemical pathway of antigen presentation in cancer and discuss how it can be modulated to enhance the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy.Recent clinical successes of cancer immunotherapy using immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are rapidly changing the landscape of cancer treatment. Regardless of initial impressive clinical results though, the therapeutic benefit of ICIs appears to be limited to a subset of patients and tumor types. Recent analyses have revealed that the potency of ICI therapies depends on the efficient presentation of tumor-specific antigens by cancer cells and professional antigen presenting cells. Here, we review current knowledge on the role of antigen presentation in cancer. We focus on intracellular antigen processing and presentation by Major Histocompatibility class I (MHCI) molecules and how it can affect cancer immune evasion. Finally, we discuss the pharmacological tractability of manipulating intracellular antigen processing as a complementary approach to enhance tumor immunogenicity and the effectiveness of ICI immunotherapy.
Highlights
The Immune System and CancerThe interplay between the immune system and cancer termed “cancer immunoediting” is a dynamic and continuously evolving process in which immune responses can eradicate tumor cells and promote tumor progression through selective pressures [1,2]
Simple Summary: A new class of drugs, termed Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors, has revolutionized cancer therapy during the last few years
In 2014, Gubin and colleagues first demonstrated that cancer immunotherapy treatments that boost T cell activity, overcoming tumor suppression induced by the tumor themselves, depend on T cell recognition of tumor-specific antigens [49]
Summary
The interplay between the immune system and cancer termed “cancer immunoediting” is a dynamic and continuously evolving process in which immune responses can eradicate tumor cells and promote tumor progression through selective pressures [1,2]. Failure to eliminate all cancer cells can result in establishment of an equilibrium phase in which the immune system controls tumor growth but cannot fully eliminate it [4] This phase is considered to include some degree of immune evasion and can lead to a strong selective pressure on cancer cells to mutate in ways to further avoid the immune surveillance either by becoming less immunogenic or by inducing a localized immunosuppressive state. Success in these processes leads to the escape phase that allows out-of-control cancer cell growth and the appearance of clinically visible tumors that are characterized by different mechanisms and magnitudes of immune evasion and suppression [5]
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