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Review
. 2024 Jul;37(4):931-943.
doi: 10.1007/s13577-024-01083-w. Epub 2024 May 30.

Immunosuppressive regulatory cells in cancer immunotherapy: restrain or modulate?

Yan Wu #  1   2 , Dongfeng Chen #  3 , Yang Gao  3   4 , Qinggang Xu  3 , Yang Zhou  3 , Zhong Ni  3 , Manli Na  5   6   7
Affiliations
Review

Immunosuppressive regulatory cells in cancer immunotherapy: restrain or modulate?

Yan Wu et al. Hum Cell. 2024 Jul.

Abstract

Immunosuppressive regulatory cells (IRCs) play important roles in negatively regulating immune response, and are mainly divided into myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and regulatory T cells (Tregs). Large numbers of preclinical and clinical studies have shown that inhibition or reduction of IRCs could effectively elevate antitumor immune responses. However, several studies also reported that excessive inhibition of IRCs function is one of the main reasons causing the side effects of cancer immunotherapy. Therefore, the reasonable regulation of IRCs is crucial for improving the safety and efficiency of cancer immunotherapy. In this review, we summarised the recent research advances in the cancer immunotherapy by regulating the proportion of IRCs, and discussed the roles of IRCs in regulating tumour immune evasion and drug resistance to immunotherapies. Furthermore, we also discussed how to balance the potential opportunities and challenges of using IRCs to improve the safety of cancer immunotherapies.

Keywords: Immunoregulatory cells; Immunotherapy; MDSCs; Safety; Tregs.

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