Cited by 13,838Cancer Immunotherapy and BiomarkersImmunotherapy and Immune ResponsesT-cell and B-cell Immunology

The blockade of immune checkpoints in cancer immunotherapy

Open access
Pardoll, Drew M.·2012·Nature Reviews Cancer

Abstract

Among the most promising approaches to activating therapeutic antitumour immunity is the blockade of immune checkpoints. Immune checkpoints refer to a plethora of inhibitory pathways hardwired into the immune system that are crucial for maintaining self-tolerance and modulating the duration and amplitude of physiological immune responses in peripheral tissues in order to minimize collateral tissue damage. It is now clear that tumours co-opt certain immune-checkpoint pathways as a major mechanism of immune resistance, particularly against T cells that are specific for tumour antigens. Because many of the immune checkpoints are initiated by ligand-receptor interactions, they can be readily blocked by antibodies or modulated by recombinant forms of ligands or receptors. Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA4) antibodies were the first of this class of immunotherapeutics to achieve US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. Preliminary clinical findings with blockers of additional immune-checkpoint proteins, such as programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1), indicate broad and diverse opportunities to enhance antitumour immunity with the potential to produce durable clinical responses.

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  • Immunotherapies have shown promising results for reducing metastasis in melanoma or kidney cancer patients.

    “Recently, immunotherapies have shown promising results for reducing metastasis in melanoma or kidney cancer patients[1, 2].”

    From Microfluidics: A New Tool for Modeling Cancer–Immune Interactions (2016) · cites this paper as [2]

    In “Evidence of clinical activity for PD1 blockade” (page unavailable), the review describes promising tumour regressions and clinical responses in patients with melanoma and renal cancer, including patients with metastatic tumours. It does not establish that immunotherapy reduced the occurrence or spread of metastases, as distinct from treating existing cancer. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Under normal physiological conditions, inhibitory immune checkpoint molecules are essential to maintain self-tolerance and prevent autoimmunity.

    “Under normal physiological conditions, inhibitory immune checkpoint molecules are essential to maintain self-tolerance and prevent autoimmunity [1,2]”
  • Several proteins with potential roles in modifying immunotherapy response were strongly down-regulated exclusively in co-culture, including CXCR4, c-KIT, and KDR.

    “there was strong down-regulation of several proteins with potential roles in modifying the response to immunotherapies exclusively in co-culture conditions, including CXCR4 (CD184), c-KIT (CD117) and KDR (CD309)23,24”
  • In the tumor microenvironment, stimulatory and inhibitory B7 family members are imbalanced, with high inhibitory and low stimulatory expression.

    “There is an active imbalance between stimulatory and inhibitory B7 family members in the tumor microenvironment [1,3,7,8].”
  • TGF-β signaling in T cells activates SHP1 expression, which represses protein tyrosine kinase activities required for TCR signaling.

    “Furthermore, TGF-β signaling in T cells activates SHP1 expression, which represses protein tyrosine kinase activities required for TCR signaling203,204.”

    From TGFβ biology in cancer progression and immunotherapy (2021) · cites this paper as [204]

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [58]Taube JM B7-H1 expression co-localizes with inflammatory infiltrates in benign and malignant melanocytic lesions: implications for immunotherapy Sci. Transl. Med 2012 In the press Introduction of the adaptive immune resistance hypothesis that proposes that the expression of immune-checkpoint ligand by tumours can be induced by an antitumour immune response as an adaptive immune-protective mechanism.

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Authors
Pardoll, D. M.
Affiliations
Johns Hopkins University (US)
Corresponding author
Pardoll, Drew M.
Venue
Nature Reviews Cancer
Published
2012-03-22
Volume
12
Issue
4
Pages
252-264
ISSN
  • 1474-175X (ISSN-L)
  • 1474-1768
OpenAlex
W2066671159
Cited by
13,838
References
129
Citations by year
2026: 652 · 2025: 910 · 2024: 1153 · 2023: 1202 · 2022: 1302 · 2021: 1456 · 2020: 1409 · 2019: 1236 · 2018: 1197 · 2017: 1146 · 2016: 897 · 2015: 647 · 2014: 339 · 2013: 240 · 2012: 39
FWCI
41.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature reviews. Cancer (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • Melanoma Research Alliance
  • Hussman Foundation
  • National Cancer Institute (P30CA021765, P30CA006973)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immunotherapy and Immune Responses
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › T-cell and B-cell Immunology
Keywords
immune checkpoint, cancer immunotherapy, immune checkpoint blockade, CTLA-4, PD-1, tumor immune evasion, antitumor immunity, self-tolerance, ligand-receptor interactions, antibody therapy, combination therapy, immune resistance
MeSH terms
Animals, Antigens, Neoplasm, Clinical Trials as Topic, Humans, Immunotherapy, Neoplasms, Tumor Escape, Cancer Vaccines, Molecular Targeted Therapy, CTLA-4 Antigen, Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor

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