The β common chain cytokines GM-CSF, IL-3, and IL-5 regulate varied inflammatory responses that promote the rapid clearance of pathogens but also contribute to pathology in chronic inflammation. ...Therapeutic interventions manipulating these cytokines are approved for use in some cancers as well as allergic and autoimmune disease, and others show promising early clinical activity. These approaches are based on our understanding of the inflammatory roles of these cytokines; however, GM-CSF also participates in the resolution of inflammation, and IL-3 and IL-5 may also have such properties. Here, we review the functions of the β common cytokines in health and disease. We discuss preclinical and clinical data, highlighting the potential inherent in targeting these cytokine pathways, the limitations, and the important gaps in understanding of the basic biology of this cytokine family.
Dougan, Dranoff, and Dougan review the functions of the β common chain cytokines—GM-CSF, IL-3, and IL-5—in health and disease. They discuss current efforts targeting these pathways in the clinic and highlight important gaps in understanding of the basic biology of this cytokine family.
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is composed of a minority of malignant cells within a microenvironment of extracellular matrix, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, and immune cells. Therapeutic ...failures of chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy have all been attributed to the PDAC microenvironment. In this review, we dissect the components of the microenvironment and explain how each cell type contributes to form a highly immunosuppressive, hypoxic, and desmoplastic cancer. New efforts in single-cell profiling will enable a better understanding of the composition of the microenvironment in primary and metastatic PDAC, as well as an understanding of how the microenvironment may respond to novel therapeutic approaches.
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is projected to become the second deadliest cancer in the United States by 2025, with 5-year survival at less than 10%. In other recalcitrant cancers, ...immunotherapy has shown unprecedented response rates, including durable remissions after drug discontinuation. However, responses to immunotherapy in PDAC are rare. Accumulating evidence in mice and humans suggests that this remarkable resistance is linked to the complex, dueling role of the immune system in simultaneously promoting and restraining PDAC. In this review, we highlight the rationale that supports pursuing immunotherapy in PDAC, outline the key barriers that limit immunotherapy efficacy, and summarize the primary preclinical and clinical efforts to sensitize PDAC to immunotherapy.
During the past decade, immunotherapies have made a major impact on the treatment of diverse types of cancer. Inflammatory toxicities are not only a major concern for Food and Drug Administration ...(FDA)-approved checkpoint blockade and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies, but also limit the development and use of combination therapies. Fundamentally, these adverse events highlight the intricate balance of pro- and anti-inflammatory pathways that regulate protective immune responses. Here, we discuss the cellular and molecular mechanisms of inflammatory adverse events, current approaches to treatment, as well as opportunities for the design of immunotherapies that limit such inflammatory toxicities while preserving anti-tumor efficacy.
Inflammatory toxicities are critical challenges hindering the success of immunotherapy in revolutionizing oncology care. Understanding the biology of inflammatory adverse events will fuel the effort of advancing immunotherapy design that curbs toxicities without sacrificing anti-tumor efficacy.
Checkpoint blockade with antibodies specific for the PD-1 and CTLA-4 inhibitory receptors can induce durable responses in a wide range of human cancers. However, the immunological mechanisms ...responsible for severe inflammatory side effects remain poorly understood. Here we report a comprehensive single-cell analysis of immune cell populations in colitis, a common and severe side effect of checkpoint blockade. We observed a striking accumulation of CD8 T cells with highly cytotoxic and proliferative states and no evidence of regulatory T cell depletion. T cell receptor (TCR) sequence analysis demonstrated that a substantial fraction of colitis-associated CD8 T cells originated from tissue-resident populations, explaining the frequently early onset of colitis symptoms following treatment initiation. Our analysis also identified cytokines, chemokines, and surface receptors that could serve as therapeutic targets for colitis and potentially other inflammatory side effects of checkpoint blockade.
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•Mechanisms of inflammatory adverse events induced by checkpoint blockade•Colitis-associated differentiation of CD8 Trm cells to cytotoxic effector cells•Persistence and expansion of CTLA-4+ Treg cells•Inflammatory pathways provide opportunities for therapeutic intervention
Single-cell analyses of immune checkpoint blockade-associated colitis patient samples reveal enrichment of regulatory T cells in colitic lesions and nominate inflammatory pathways for potential therapeutic intervention.
Eosinophils play a homeostatic role in the body’s immune responses. These cells are involved in combating some parasitic, bacterial, and viral infections and certain cancers and have pathologic roles ...in diseases including asthma, chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps, eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders, and hypereosinophilic syndromes. Treatment of eosinophilic diseases has traditionally been through nonspecific eosinophil attenuation by use of glucocorticoids. However, several novel biologic therapies targeting eosinophil maturation factors, such as interleukin (IL)-5 and the IL-5 receptor or IL-4/IL-13, have recently been approved for clinical use. Despite the success of biologic therapies, some patients with eosinophilic inflammatory disease may not achieve adequate symptom control, underlining the need to further investigate the contribution of patient characteristics, such as comorbidities and other processes, in driving ongoing disease activity. New research has shown that eosinophils are also involved in several homeostatic processes, including metabolism, tissue remodeling and development, neuronal regulation, epithelial and microbiome regulation, and immunoregulation, indicating that these cells may play a crucial role in metabolic regulation and organ function in healthy humans. Consequently, further investigation is needed into the homeostatic roles of eosinophils and eosinophil-mediated processes across different tissues and their varied microenvironments. Such work may provide important insights into the role of eosinophils not only under disease conditions but also in health. This narrative review synthesizes relevant publications retrieved from PubMed informed by author expertise to provide new insights into the diverse roles of eosinophils in health and disease, with particular emphasis on the implications for current and future development of eosinophil-targeted therapies.
Patients undergoing surgical resection of primary breast tumors confront a risk for metastatic recurrence that peaks sharply 12 to 18 months after surgery. The cause of early metastatic relapse in ...breast cancer has long been debated, with many ascribing these relapses to the natural progression of the disease. Others have proposed that some aspect of surgical tumor resection triggers the outgrowth of otherwise-dormant metastases, leading to the synchronous pattern of relapse. Clinical data cannot distinguish between these hypotheses, and previous experimental approaches have not provided clear answers. Such uncertainty hinders the development and application of therapeutic approaches that could potentially reduce early metastatic relapse. We describe an experimental model system that definitively links surgery and the subsequent wound-healing response to the outgrowth of tumor cells at distant anatomical sites. Specifically, we find that the systemic inflammatory response induced after surgery promotes the emergence of tumors whose growth was otherwise restricted by a tumor-specific T cell response. Furthermore, we demonstrate that perioperative anti-inflammatory treatment markedly reduces tumor outgrowth in this model, suggesting that similar approaches might substantially reduce early metastatic recurrence in breast cancer patients.
Blocking antibodies to the immune checkpoint receptors or their ligands have revolutionized the treatment of diverse malignancies. Many tumors are recognized by adaptive immunity, but these adaptive ...responses can be inhibited by immunosuppressive mechanisms within the tumor, often through pathways outside of the currently targeted checkpoints. For this reason, only a minority of cancer patients achieve durable responses to current immunotherapies. Multiple novel approaches strive to expand immunotherapy's reach. These may include targeting alternative immune checkpoints. However, many investigational strategies look beyond checkpoint blockade. These include cellular therapies to bypass endogenous immunity and efforts to stimulate new adaptive antitumor responses using vaccines, adjuvants, and combinations with cytotoxic therapy, as well as strategies to inhibit innate immune suppression and modulate metabolism within the tumor microenvironment. The challenge for immunotherapy going forward will be to select rational strategies for overcoming barriers to effective antitumor responses from the myriad possible targets.
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