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Review
. 2025 Jul 7;222(7):e20250378.
doi: 10.1084/jem.20250378. Epub 2025 Apr 22.

Microbiota-centered interventions to boost immune checkpoint blockade therapies

Andrew A Almonte #  1   2 , Simon Thomas #  1   2   3 , Laurence Zitvogel  1   2   3   4
Affiliations
Review

Microbiota-centered interventions to boost immune checkpoint blockade therapies

Andrew A Almonte et al. J Exp Med. .

Abstract

Immune checkpoint blockade therapies have markedly advanced cancer treatment by invigorating antitumor immunity and extending patient survival. However, therapeutic resistance and immune-related toxicities remain major concerns. Emerging evidence indicates that microbial dysbiosis diminishes therapeutic response rates, while a diverse gut ecology and key beneficial taxa correlate with improved treatment outcomes. Therefore, there is a growing understanding that manipulating the gut microbiota could boost therapy efficacy. This review examines burgeoning methods that target the gut microbiome to optimize therapy and innovative diagnostic tools to detect dysbiosis, and highlights challenges that remain to be addressed in the field.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures: A.A. Almonte reported personal fees from Gustave Roussy outside the submitted work. L. Zitvogel reported grants from EVERIMMUNE, personal fees from EVERIMMUNE, and “other” from EVERIMMUNE during the conduct of the study; and grants from DAIICHI SANKYO, nonfinancial support from BIOMERIEUX, and grants from PILEJE outside the submitted work; in addition, L. Zitvogel had a patent to EP 14190167 pending, a patent to EP 16306779.6 pending, a patent to EP 18306282.7 pending, a patent to EP 19306246.0 pending, and a patent to EP21305846.4 pending. No other disclosures were reported.

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