Department of Surgical & Oncological Sciences, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
Immunotherapy. 2011 Jan;3(1):97-106. doi: 10.2217/imt.10.87.
In the last 10 years, cancer stem cells have interested the scientific community because this small tumorigenic population is also associated with tumor progression in human patients and specific targeting of cancer stem cells could be a strategy to eradicate cancers currently resistant to conventional therapy. Clinical studies have recently demonstrated that adding immune therapy to chemotherapy has survival benefits in comparison with chemotherapy alone that can sensitize tumors to immune cell-mediated killing (e.g., increasing sensitivity of tumor cells to subsequent cytotoxicity by T cells via upregulation of death receptors DR5 and Fas). However, loss of MHC molecules is often observed in cancer cells, rendering tumor cells resistant to CD8 T-cell-mediated cytotoxicity. For this reason, we review the role of other T-cell subsets, such as γδ T and NK cells that are able to efficiently recognize and kill tumor cells and that could be used in passive or active immunotherapy in cancer stem cell eradication.
在过去的 10 年中，癌症干细胞引起了科学界的兴趣，因为这种小的肿瘤发生群体也与人类患者的肿瘤进展有关，并且针对癌症干细胞的特定靶向可能是一种消除目前对常规治疗有抵抗力的癌症的策略。临床研究最近表明，与单独化疗相比，将免疫疗法与化疗联合使用具有生存益处，这可以使肿瘤对免疫细胞介导的杀伤敏感（例如，通过上调死亡受体 DR5 和 Fas，增加 T 细胞后续细胞毒性对肿瘤细胞的敏感性）。然而，在癌细胞中经常观察到 MHC 分子的缺失，从而使肿瘤细胞对 CD8 T 细胞介导的细胞毒性产生抗性。出于这个原因，我们回顾了其他 T 细胞亚群的作用，例如γδ T 和 NK 细胞，它们能够有效地识别和杀死肿瘤细胞，并且可以在癌症干细胞消除的被动或主动免疫治疗中使用。
