Advances in Cancer Immunology

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Vaccines and Immunotherapy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2022) | Viewed by 4959

Special Issue Editor

Department Otolaryngol Head & Neck Surg, Asahikawa Med University, Midorigaoka East 2-1-1-1, Asahikawa 0788510, Japan
Interests: head and neck cancer; immunotherapy; chemoradiotherapy; surgery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Immunotherapy has emerged as a standard therapy in addition to surgical resection, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. The oncological outcome of immune checkpoint blockade is acceptable in a variety of tumor types, indicating that immune cells are capable of killing tumors. The drawback of immune checkpoint blockade is a low responder rate of around 20%. Because the effect of immune checkpoint blockade depends on already-existing immune cells in the tumor microenvironment, the lack, or exhaustion, of these cells would hinder the antitumor effect of this treatment. A tumor vaccine is an active method to specifically increase antitumor immune cells. In addition to CD8 T-cells, which play an essential role in tumor vaccination by directly killing tumor cells, innumerable reports have indicated that CD4 T-cells also have a direct cytotoxic activity against tumors. The identification of peptide epitopes from tumor-associated antigens (TAA) is a feasible process to help develop a tumor vaccine. However, vaccination using tumor-derived peptides and inadequate adjuvants, such as incomplete Freund’s adjuvant (IFA), which consists of non-metabolizable oil and a surfactant, failed to achieve clinical antitumor effects in the late 20th century. With advances in the comprehensive understanding of the immune system, we now have a solid theory to expand T-cells by combining peptides (T-cell receptor stimulation as signal 1, costimulatory molecules as signal 2, and cytokines as signal 3) using adequate adjuvants and impeding the immune-suppressive environment. The main aim of this Special Issue is to gather the latest advances in the field of tumor immunology to optimize a tumor vaccine.

Potential topics for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

- Immune adjuvants for a tumor vaccine;

- Immunological assessment of the tumor microenvironment;

- Combination of immunotherapy and chemoradiotherapy;

- Optimization of administration route and/or formula in a tumor vaccine;

- Immune cell polarization and immunotherapy;

- Impeding immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment;

- Re-education of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment;

Dr. Takumi Kumai
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • Tumor vaccine
  • Immune adjuvants
  • Tumor immune environment
  • Peptide vaccine
  • Chemoradiotherapy
  • Cytokines
  • Suppressive immune cells
  • Checkpoint inhibitors

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 2021 KiB  
Article
Correlations between Circulating and Tumor-Infiltrating CD4+ T Cell Subsets with Immune Checkpoints in Colorectal Cancer
by Mohammad A. Al-Mterin, Khaled Murshed and Eyad Elkord
Vaccines 2022, 10(4), 538; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/vaccines10040538 - 30 Mar 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1970
Abstract
T regulatory cells (Tregs) play different roles in the regulation of anti-tumor immunity in colorectal cancer (CRC), depending on the presence of different Treg subsets. We investigated correlations between different CD4+ Treg/T cell subsets in CRC patients with immune checkpoint-expressing CD4+ [...] Read more.
T regulatory cells (Tregs) play different roles in the regulation of anti-tumor immunity in colorectal cancer (CRC), depending on the presence of different Treg subsets. We investigated correlations between different CD4+ Treg/T cell subsets in CRC patients with immune checkpoint-expressing CD4+ T cells. Positive correlations were observed between levels of different immune checkpoint-expressing CD4+ T cells, including PD-1, TIM-3, LAG-3, and CTLA-4 with FoxP3+ Tregs, Helios+ T cells, FoxP3+Helios+ Tregs, and FoxP3+Helios Tregs in the tumor microenvironment (TME). However, negative correlations were observed between levels of these immune checkpoint-expressing CD4+ T with FoxP3Helios T cells in the TME. These correlations in the TME highlight the role of cancer cells in the upregulation of IC-expressing Tregs. Additionally, positive correlations were observed between levels of FoxP3+ Tregs, Helios+ T cells, FoxP3+Helios+ Tregs, and FoxP3+Helios Tregs and levels of CD4+CTLA-4+ T cells and CD4+PD-1+ T cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and normal tissue-infiltrating lymphocytes (NILs). These observations suggest that CTLA-4 and PD-1 expressions on CD4+ T cell subsets are not induced only by the TME. This is the first study to investigate the correlations of different FoxP3+/−Helios+/− T cell subsets with immune checkpoint-expressing CD4+ T cells in CRC patients. Our data demonstrated strong correlations between FoxP3+/Helios+/− Tregs but not FoxP3Helios+/− non-Tregs and multiple immune checkpoints, especially in the TME, providing a rationale for targeting these cells with highly immunosuppressive characteristics. Understanding the correlations between different immune checkpoints and Treg/T cell subsets in cancer patients could improve our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms of Treg-mediated immunosuppression in cancer. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Cancer Immunology)
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Review

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17 pages, 730 KiB  
Review
Antitumor Peptide-Based Vaccine in the Limelight
by Takumi Kumai, Hidekiyo Yamaki, Michihisa Kono, Ryusuke Hayashi, Risa Wakisaka and Hiroki Komatsuda
Vaccines 2022, 10(1), 70; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/vaccines10010070 - 03 Jan 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2412
Abstract
The success of the immune checkpoint blockade has provided a proof of concept that immune cells are capable of attacking tumors in the clinic. However, clinical benefit is only observed in less than 20% of the patients due to the non-specific activation of [...] Read more.
The success of the immune checkpoint blockade has provided a proof of concept that immune cells are capable of attacking tumors in the clinic. However, clinical benefit is only observed in less than 20% of the patients due to the non-specific activation of immune cells by the immune checkpoint blockade. Developing tumor-specific immune responses is a challenging task that can be achieved by targeting tumor antigens to generate tumor-specific T-cell responses. The recent advancements in peptide-based immunotherapy have encouraged clinicians and patients who are struggling with cancer that is otherwise non-treatable with current therapeutics. By selecting appropriate epitopes from tumor antigens with suitable adjuvants, peptides can elicit robust antitumor responses in both mice and humans. Although recent experimental data and clinical trials suggest the potency of tumor reduction by peptide-based vaccines, earlier clinical trials based on the inadequate hypothesis have misled that peptide vaccines are not efficient in eliminating tumor cells. In this review, we highlighted the recent evidence that supports the rationale of peptide-based antitumor vaccines. We also discussed the strategies to select the optimal epitope for vaccines and the mechanism of how adjuvants increase the efficacy of this promising approach to treat cancer. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Cancer Immunology)
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