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Review
. 2025 May 30:16:1586759.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1586759. eCollection 2025.

Research progress of B7-H3 in malignant tumors

Shuaixiang Zhao #  1   2 , He Zhang #  2 , Guanning Shang  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Research progress of B7-H3 in malignant tumors

Shuaixiang Zhao et al. Front Immunol. .

Erratum in

Abstract

B7 homolog 3 (B7-H3, also known as CD276) is a novel member of the B7 immune protein family. There is a marked difference in the expression and distribution of B7-H3 protein and mRNA between normal and tumor tissues, with widespread expression in tumor tissues and a close relationship with tumor progression. B7-H3 activates or inhibits tumor immune responses by binding to receptors on the surface of immune cells. Apart from participating in tumor immune activities, it has regulatory effects on non-immunological functions, such as tumor migration and invasion, angiogenesis, glycometabolism, and drug resistance. Thus, it has important biological functions in regulating the progression of malignant tumors. Current research on the structure, function, and therapeutic methods of B7-H3 is continuously breaking new ground, deepening our understanding of B7-H3, and promoting the development of therapeutic drugs targeting this new protein. This review briefly discusses the structure and distribution of B7-H3, as well as its immune and non-immune functions in the progression of cancer. It also summarizes the research progress on drugs targeting B7-H3 and the latest developments in clinical trials, highlighting their significant potential for the treatment of malignant tumors.

Keywords: B7-H3(CD276); drug trials; immunity; malignant tumor; targeted therapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) The dimeric form of mB7-H3, with gray and cyan representing two different subunits; (B) The electron density of the FG loop bridging sequence in mB7-H3; (C) The monomeric structural model of mB7-H3; (D) The structural model of mB7-H3 compared with the human PD-L1 structural model (16).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution and expression of B7-H3 in the human body.nTPM (normalized Transcripts Per Million) is a standardized method used to quantify gene expression levels, which eliminates the effects of sequencing depth and gene length differences, thereby allowing for more accurate comparisons of expression data between different samples.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The immune functions of B7-H3.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The non-immune functions of B7-H3.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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