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Review
. 2021 Feb;6(1):100046.
doi: 10.1016/j.esmoop.2020.100046. Epub 2021 Jan 25.

Immune cell engagers in solid tumors: promises and challenges of the next generation immunotherapy

G Fucà  1 , A Spagnoletti  2 , M Ambrosini  2 , F de Braud  3 , M Di Nicola  2
Affiliations
Review

Immune cell engagers in solid tumors: promises and challenges of the next generation immunotherapy

G Fucà et al. ESMO Open. 2021 Feb.

Abstract

In the landscape of cancer immunotherapy, immune cell engagers (ICEs) are rapidly emerging as a feasible and easy-to-deliver alternative to adoptive cell therapy for the antitumor redirection of immune effector cells. Even if in hematological malignancies this class of new therapeutics already hit the clinic, the development of ICEs in solid tumors still represents a challenge. Considering that ICEs are a rapidly expanding biotechnology in cancer therapy, we designed this review as a primer for clinicians, focusing on the major obstacles for the clinical implementation and the most translatable approaches proposed to overcome the limitations in solid tumors.

Keywords: BiTEs; T cell redirection; immune cell engagers; immunotherapy; solid tumors.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure MDN holds a patent application as an inventor on bispecific antibodies for use in cancer immunotherapy (US patent application number 15/740560). The remaining authors have no potential conflicts of interest that might be relevant to the contents of this manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mechanism of action of immune cells engagers. Immune cell engagers are able to redirect immune effector cells and create an artificial immune synapse between tumor cells (targeting a tumor-associated antigen) and T cells (engaging CD3 or costimulatory molecules such as CD28 or 4-1BB), NK cells (engaging CD16 or NKG2D) and cytotoxic/phagocytic cells (engaging CD64). IFN, interferon; NK, natural killer; TNF, tumor necrosis factor alpha.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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