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Review
. 2022 Aug 17;15(1):111.
doi: 10.1186/s13045-022-01325-0.

Immune checkpoint modulators in cancer immunotherapy: recent advances and emerging concepts

Affiliations
Review

Immune checkpoint modulators in cancer immunotherapy: recent advances and emerging concepts

Yuchen Wang et al. J Hematol Oncol. .

Abstract

The discovery of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has now been universally acknowledged as a significant breakthrough in tumor therapy after the targeted treatment of checkpoint molecules: anti-programmed cell death protein 1/programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) and anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) on several cancer types achieved satisfying results. However, there are still quite a lot of patients suffering from severe side effects and ineffective treatment outcomes. Although the current ICI therapy is far from satisfying, a series of novel immune checkpoint molecules with remarkable preclinical and clinical benefits are being widely investigated, like the V-domain Ig suppressor of T cell activation (VISTA), which can also be called PD-1 homolog (PD-1H), and ectonucleotidases: CD39, CD73, and CD38, which belong to the ribosyl cyclase family, etc. In this review, we systematically summarized and discussed these molecules' biological structures, molecular features, and the corresponding targeted drugs, aiming to help the in-depth understanding of immune checkpoint molecules and promote the clinical practice of ICI therapy.

Keywords: Clinical trial; Immune checkpoint; Immunotherapy; Targeted drugs.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mode of action of VISTA, CD38/CD39/CD73, LAG-3, and IDO-1 signaling pathways
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Mode of action of CD27/CD70, TIM-3, CD47, and CD93 signaling pathways
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Mode of action of CD161, BTLA, VTCN1, and B7-H3 signaling pathways

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