Department of Dermatology, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Institute of Dermatology, Shanghai Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Front Immunol. 2019 Sep 26;10:2293. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.02293. eCollection 2019.
Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors has greatly prolonged the overall survival of cancer patients in melanoma and many other cancer types. However, only a subset of patients shows clinical responses from these interventions, which was predicated by the T cell-inflamed tumor microenvironment. T cell-inflamed phenotype is characterized by the infiltration of CD8 T cells, CD8α/CD103-lineage dendritic cells (DCs), as well as high density of forkhead box P3 (FoxP3) regulatory T cells (Tregs) that are associated with the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade. A number of regulators has been associated with T cell-inflammation in the tumor microenvironment, and WNT/β-catenin signaling is one of the best characterized. The tumor-intrinsic WNT/β-catenin signaling activation is frequently associated with poor spontaneous T cell infiltration across most human cancers. In this article, we review the essential roles of WNT/β-catenin signaling in the T cell-inflamed and non-T cell-inflamed tumor microenvironment, including the development and function of immune cells, activation of immune exclusion of tumor cells, and cancer immunosurveillance. We also discuss the impact of this pathway in driving the non-T cell-inflamed tumor microenvironment in other tumor types. To improve immunotherapy efficacy, we argue that targeting Wnt/β-catenin signaling should be a high priority for combinational cancer therapy to restore T cell infiltration.
免疫检查点抑制剂的免疫疗法极大地延长了黑色素瘤和许多其他癌症类型中癌症患者的总生存期。然而,只有一部分患者对这些干预措施有临床反应,这是由 T 细胞浸润的肿瘤微环境所预测的。T 细胞浸润表型的特征是 CD8 T 细胞、CD8α/CD103 谱系树突状细胞(DC)以及高密 度的叉头框 P3(FoxP3)调节性 T 细胞(Treg)的浸润,这与免疫检查点阻断的疗效相关。许多调节剂与肿瘤微环境中的 T 细胞炎症有关,WNT/β-连环蛋白信号通路是其中特征最明确的一种。肿瘤内在的 WNT/β-连环蛋白信号通路的激活与大多数人类癌症中自发性 T 细胞浸润不良密切相关。在本文中,我们综述了 WNT/β-连环蛋白信号通路在 T 细胞浸润和非 T 细胞浸润肿瘤微环境中的重要作用,包括免疫细胞的发育和功能、肿瘤细胞免疫排斥的激活以及癌症免疫监视。我们还讨论了该通路在驱动其他肿瘤类型中非 T 细胞浸润肿瘤微环境中的作用。为了提高免疫治疗的疗效,我们认为靶向 Wnt/β-连环蛋白信号通路应该是联合癌症治疗以恢复 T 细胞浸润的首要任务。
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