Cited by 56Pluripotent Stem Cells ResearchImmunotherapy and Immune ResponsesT-cell and B-cell Immunology

Cell Fate Reprogramming in the Era of Cancer Immunotherapy

Open access
Zimmermannova, Olga, Caiado, Inês, Ferreira, Alexandra G., Pereira, Carlos-Filipe·2021·Frontiers in Immunology

Abstract

Advances in understanding how cancer cells interact with the immune system allowed the development of immunotherapeutic strategies, harnessing patients’ immune system to fight cancer. Dendritic cell-based vaccines are being explored to reactivate anti-tumor adaptive immunity. Immune checkpoint inhibitors and chimeric antigen receptor T-cells (CAR T) were however the main approaches that catapulted the therapeutic success of immunotherapy. Despite their success across a broad range of human cancers, many challenges remain for basic understanding and clinical progress as only a minority of patients benefit from immunotherapy. In addition, cellular immunotherapies face important limitations imposed by the availability and quality of immune cells isolated from donors. Cell fate reprogramming is offering interesting alternatives to meet these challenges. Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology not only enables studying immune cell specification but also serves as a platform for the differentiation of a myriad of clinically useful immune cells including T-cells, NK cells, or monocytes at scale. Moreover, the utilization of iPSCs allows introduction of genetic modifications and generation of T/NK cells with enhanced anti-tumor properties. Immune cells, such as macrophages and dendritic cells, can also be generated by direct cellular reprogramming employing lineage-specific master regulators bypassing the pluripotent stage. Thus, the cellular reprogramming toolbox is now providing the means to address the potential of patient-tailored immune cell types for cancer immunotherapy. In parallel, development of viral vectors for gene delivery has opened the door for in vivo reprogramming in regenerative medicine, an elegant strategy circumventing the current limitations of in vitro cell manipulation. An analogous paradigm has been recently developed in cancer immunotherapy by the generation of CAR T-cells in vivo. These new ideas on endogenous reprogramming, cross-fertilized from the fields of regenerative medicine and gene therapy, are opening exciting avenues for direct modulation of immune or tumor cells in situ, widening our strategies to remove cancer immunotherapy roadblocks. Here, we review current strategies for cancer immunotherapy, summarize technologies for generation of immune cells by cell fate reprogramming as well as highlight the future potential of inducing these unique cell identities in vivo, providing new and exciting tools for the fast-paced field of cancer immunotherapy.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3389/fimmu.2021.714822

Cites

238 of 238 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

1 retracted

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Zimmermannova, O., Caiado, I., Ferreira, A. G., & Pereira, C.-F.
Affiliations
Lund University (SE)
Corresponding author
Pereira, Carlos-Filipe
Venue
Frontiers in Immunology
Published
2021-07-21
Volume
12
Pages
714822-714822
ISSN
1664-3224 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3184553415
Cited by
56
References
238
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 15
FWCI
1.10
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Frontiers in Immunology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Estudo Geral (Universidad de Coimbra) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Cancerfonden (200939 PjF)
  • Vetenskapsrådet
  • European Research Council
  • Novo Nordisk Fonden
  • Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PTDC/MED-IMU/4520/2020, SFRH/BD/130845/2017)
  • Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Pluripotent Stem Cells Research
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immunotherapy and Immune Responses
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › T-cell and B-cell Immunology
Keywords
cellular reprogramming, cancer immunotherapy, induced pluripotent stem cells, immune cell differentiation, T cells, natural killer cells, macrophages, dendritic cells, in vivo reprogramming, viral vectors, gene delivery, chimeric antigen receptor T cells, immune checkpoint inhibitors, dendritic cell vaccine, cellular immunotherapy
MeSH terms
Cellular Reprogramming Techniques, Antineoplastic Agents, Immunological, Animals, Combined Modality Therapy, Genetic Engineering, Humans, Immunotherapy, Neoplasms, Genetic Therapy, Immunotherapy, Adoptive, Disease Management, Cancer Vaccines, Molecular Targeted Therapy, Cellular Reprogramming

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review