Tumor Microenvironment Targeted and Immunotherapies for Brain Cancer

A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Tumor Microenvironment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2023) | Viewed by 2592

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Georg-Speyer-Haus, Institute for Tumor Biology and Experimental Therapy, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Interests: brain metastasis; neuro-immunology; immunotherapy; CNS inflammation; tumor microenvironment; therapy resistance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,          

Primary and metastastic brain cancers still represent an unmet clinical need with an urgent need for improved therapy options. Paucity in treatment success can in part be attributed to the unique tissue environment of the brain harboring a multitude of highly specialized cell types. Given the presence of the blood–brain barrier, the brain has traditionally been regarded as an immune privileged organ. However, the discovery of a dural lymphatic system and the identification of various myeloid and lymphoid cell types in border-associated regions of the brain changed our view on immunity within the central nervous system. The emerging field of neuro-immunology provides unprecedented opportunities for the development of novel therapeutic avenues that target different immune cell types, aiming at improving immune recognition and destruction of cancer cells or the blockade of tumor-promoting functions of cells of the tumor immune microenvironment in primary and metastastic cancers.

This Special Issue will focus on recent developments in tumor microenvironment-targeted therapies and immunotherapies for primary and metastatic brain cancers and welcomes original articles or reviews highlighting novel therapeutic strategies of inducing anti-cancer immune responses or blocking tumor-promoting functions of brain-resident or recruited immune cell types in CNS tumors.

Dr. Lisa Sevenich
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • primary and metastatic brain cancer
  • immuno-oncology
  • neuro-immunology
  • immune checkpoint blockade
  • cancer vaccines
  • CAR T cells/CAR NK cells
  • radio-immunotherapy
  • tumor microenvironment tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes
  • tumor-associated macrophages / microglia.

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

22 pages, 3015 KiB  
Review
Targeting Heat Shock Proteins in Malignant Brain Tumors: From Basic Research to Clinical Trials
by Aisha Babi, Karashash Menlibayeva, Torekhan Bex, Aidos Doskaliev, Serik Akshulakov and Maxim Shevtsov
Cancers 2022, 14(21), 5435; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cancers14215435 - 04 Nov 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2207
Abstract
Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are conservative and ubiquitous proteins that are expressed both in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms and play an important role in cellular homeostasis, including the regulation of proteostasis, apoptosis, autophagy, maintenance of signal pathways, protection from various stresses (e.g., hypoxia, [...] Read more.
Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are conservative and ubiquitous proteins that are expressed both in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms and play an important role in cellular homeostasis, including the regulation of proteostasis, apoptosis, autophagy, maintenance of signal pathways, protection from various stresses (e.g., hypoxia, ionizing radiation, etc.). Therefore, HSPs are highly expressed in tumor cells, including malignant brain tumors, where they also associate with cancer cell invasion, metastasis, and resistance to radiochemotherapy. In the current review, we aimed to assess the diagnostic and prognostic values of HSPs expression in CNS malignancies as well as the novel treatment approaches to modulate the chaperone levels through the application of inhibitors (as monotherapy or in combination with other treatment modalities). Indeed, for several proteins (i.e., HSP10, HSPB1, DNAJC10, HSPA7, HSP90), a direct correlation between the protein level expression and poor overall survival prognosis for patients was demonstrated that provides a possibility to employ them as prognostic markers in neuro-oncology. Although small molecular inhibitors for HSPs, particularly for HSP27, HSP70, and HSP90 families, were studied in various solid and hematological malignancies demonstrating therapeutic potential, still their potential was not yet fully explored in CNS tumors. Some newly synthesized agents (e.g., HSP40/DNAJ inhibitors) have not yet been evaluated in GBM. Nevertheless, reported preclinical studies provide evidence and rationale for the application of HSPs inhibitors for targeting brain tumors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tumor Microenvironment Targeted and Immunotherapies for Brain Cancer)
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