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Comment
. 2020 Nov;21(11):1311-1312.
doi: 10.1038/s41590-020-0801-7.

PD-1+ Treg cells: a foe in cancer immunotherapy?

Halil-Ibrahim Aksoylar  1   2 , Vassiliki A Boussiotis  3   4
Affiliations
Comment

PD-1+ Treg cells: a foe in cancer immunotherapy?

Halil-Ibrahim Aksoylar et al. Nat Immunol. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

The mechanisms that drive responses to PD-1-blocking immunotherapy in some but not all patients have been puzzling. A new study suggests that the balance of PD-1 expression levels between CD8+ T cells and Treg cells might provide an answer.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests

V.A.B. has patents on the PD-1 pathway licensed by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche, Merck, EMD-Serono, Boehringer Ingelheim, AstraZeneca, Novartis and Dako. The authors declare no other competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1 |
Fig. 1 |. Levels of PD-1 expression by Treg and CD8+ T cells determine the efficacy of PD-1 immunotherapy.
When T cells express high PD-1 levels, PD-1 blockade leads to their activation and enhances their physiological function. a, When PD-1 is predominantly expressed in CD8+ T cells in the Tme, blocking PD-1 converts PD-1+CD8+ T cells into CD8+ Teff cells with potent effector function, leading to tumor regression. b, Conversely, when PD-1 is predominantly expressed by Treg cells in the Tme, blocking PD-1 converts them into activated eTreg cells with potent suppressor function, leading to tumor progression. Credit: Debbie maizels/Springer Nature
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