Department of Oncology, Tongji Hospital of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China.
Department of Medical Oncology, The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University & Henan Cancer Hospital, Zhengzhou, 450008, China.
J Hematol Oncol. 2020 Mar 28;13(1):25. doi: 10.1186/s13045-020-00848-8.
During malignant transformation, accumulated somatic mutations endow cancer cells with increased invasiveness and immunogenicity. Under selective pressure, these highly immunogenic cancer cells develop multiple strategies to evade immune attack. It has been well established that cancer cells could downregulate the expression of major histocompatibility complex, acquire alterations in interferon pathway, and upregulate the activities of immune checkpoint pathways. Besides, cancer cells secret numerous cytokines, exosomes, and microvesicles to regulate the functions and abundances of components in the tumor microenvironment including immune effector cells and professional antigen presentation cells. As the vital determinant of post-transcriptional regulation, microRNAs (miRNAs) not only participate in cancer initiation and progression but also regulate anti-cancer immune response. For instance, some miRNAs affect cancer immune surveillance and immune escape by interfering the expression of immune attack-associated molecules. A growing body of evidence indicated that cancer-derived immune modulatory miRNAs might be promising targets to counteract cancer immune escape. In this review, we summarized the role of some miRNAs in cancer immune escape and discussed their potential clinical application as treatment targets.
在恶性转化过程中，积累的体细胞突变赋予癌细胞更高的侵袭性和免疫原性。在选择压力下，这些高度免疫原性的癌细胞会发展出多种策略来逃避免疫攻击。已经证实，癌细胞可以下调主要组织相容性复合体的表达，获得干扰素途径的改变，并上调免疫检查点途径的活性。此外，癌细胞分泌大量细胞因子、外泌体和微泡，以调节肿瘤微环境中包括免疫效应细胞和专业抗原呈递细胞在内的成分的功能和丰度。作为转录后调控的重要决定因素，microRNAs（miRNAs）不仅参与癌症的发生和发展，还调节抗肿瘤免疫反应。例如，一些 miRNAs 通过干扰与免疫攻击相关的分子的表达来影响癌症的免疫监视和免疫逃逸。越来越多的证据表明，源自癌症的免疫调节 miRNAs 可能是对抗癌症免疫逃逸的有前途的靶点。在这篇综述中，我们总结了一些 miRNAs 在癌症免疫逃逸中的作用，并讨论了它们作为治疗靶点的潜在临床应用。
