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Critical immunotherapy target marks dysfunctional regulatory T cells in brain cancer
Immunotherapy represents an exciting advance in cancer treatment that harnesses the immune system to seek and destroy cancer cells.
The programmed death 1 (PD-1) pathway dampens immune responses to tumor cells, and several clinical trials have shown favorable outcomes by targeting PD-1 or its ligand PD-1L.
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In JCI Insight, David Hafler and colleagues at Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology examined PD-1-expressing regulatory T cells in glioblastoma multiforme, an extremely aggressive form of brain cancer.
Regulatory T cells normally constrain immune responses and keep other types of T cells from mounting hyper-aggressive responses.
Although anti-PD1 therapy is generally thought to promote conventional T cell activity, the Hafler team now reports that PD-1 expression on regulatory T cells from the tumors of glioblastoma multiforme patients correlates with regulatory T cell dysfunction.
They also found that glioblastoma multiforme patients treated with a PD-1 blocking antibody had a higher proportion of dysfunctional regulatory T cells.
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These observations suggest the possibility that PD-1 targeting therapies could work, in part, by driving further regulatory T cell dysfunction.
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The session will also explore how these human-specific in vitro approaches support the broader transition toward predictive human-specific alternatives to animal models for drug discovery.View Webinar
Future studies will be needed to more fully understand the contribution of this pathway to anti-tumor effects.
Note: Material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.
Journal of Clinical Investigation
Publication
Lowther DE et al. PD-1 marks dysfunctional regulatory T cells in malignant gliomas. JCI Insight, Published April 21 2016. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.85935
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