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Review
. 2018 Nov 14;19(11):3595.
doi: 10.3390/ijms19113595.

HGF/MET and the Immune System: Relevance for Cancer Immunotherapy

Federica Papaccio  1 , Carminia Maria Della Corte  2 , Giuseppe Viscardi  3 , Raimondo Di Liello  4 , Giovanna Esposito  5 , Francesca Sparano  6 , Fortunato Ciardiello  7 , Floriana Morgillo  8
Affiliations
Review

HGF/MET and the Immune System: Relevance for Cancer Immunotherapy

Federica Papaccio et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

An overactivation of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (MET) axis promotes tumorigenesis and tumor progression in various cancer types. Research data recently evidenced that HGF/MET signaling is also involved also in the immune response, mainly modulating dendritic cells functions. In general, the pathway seems to play an immunosuppressive role, thus hypothesizing that it could constitute a mechanism of primary and acquired resistance to cancer immunotherapy. Recently, some approaches are being developed, including drug design and cell therapy to combine MET and programmed cell death receptor-1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death receptor-ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibition. This approach could represent a new weapon in cancer therapy in the future.

Keywords: HGF; MET; cancer; immune system; immunotherapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

Fortunato Ciardiello: Advisory Boards: Roche, Amgen, Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi, Bayer, Servier, BMS, Cellgene, Lilly; Institutional Research Grants: Bayer, Roche, Merck, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Takeda; Floriana Morgillo: Advisory Boards MSD, Lilly; Institutional Research Grants: AstraZeneca. All other authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Roles of the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (MET) pathway.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Multiple roles of HGF/MET in cancer immunotherapy. MET CAR T: MET chimeric antigen receptor T cell; IDO1: indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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