Yang Minfeng, Hou Shiqiang, Chen Yao, Chen Hongzhao, Chu Minjie, Liu Song-Bai
School of Public Health, Nantong University, Nantong, China.
The First People's Hospital of Chuzhou, The Affiliated Chuzhou Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Chuzhou, China.
Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2025 Feb 4;74(3):100. doi: 10.1007/s00262-025-03944-1.
Cancer immunotherapy has attracted great attention as a potential therapeutic approach for advanced malignancies due to its promising survival benefits. Comprehension of intricate interactions between the tumor microenvironment (TME) and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) is crucial for optimizing and improving immunotherapies. Currently, several experimental strategies are available to monitor this complexity but most of them fail to facilitate real-time monitoring of the immune response such as cellular phagocytosis and cytolysis. Consequently, the application of intravital imaging has been extensively studied in the domain of cancer immunotherapy. Intravital imaging has been proven to be a powerful real-time imaging modality that provides insights into intratumoral immune responses, cellular metabolic signatures, tumor vasculature, and cellular functions. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest research on intravital imaging in cancer immunotherapy, especially addressing how intravital imaging sheds light on essential features of tumor immunity, immune infiltrations, tumor angiogenesis, and aids in the clarification of underlying immunotherapeutic mechanisms. Moreover, a variety of labeling tools, imaging windows and models for real-time visualizations of TME are also summarized. We will also investigate the full potential of using intravital imaging to circumvent the limitations of currently available imaging modalities, which hold promise to advent efficient immunotherapy for cancer patients.
癌症免疫疗法作为一种针对晚期恶性肿瘤的潜在治疗方法，因其有望带来生存益处而备受关注。理解肿瘤微环境（TME）与免疫检查点抑制剂（ICIs）之间复杂的相互作用对于优化和改进免疫疗法至关重要。目前，有几种实验策略可用于监测这种复杂性，但其中大多数无法促进对免疫反应的实时监测，如细胞吞噬作用和细胞溶解。因此，活体成像在癌症免疫治疗领域得到了广泛研究。活体成像已被证明是一种强大的实时成像方式，可深入了解肿瘤内免疫反应、细胞代谢特征、肿瘤血管系统和细胞功能。本综述旨在全面概述癌症免疫治疗中活体成像的最新研究，特别阐述活体成像如何揭示肿瘤免疫、免疫浸润、肿瘤血管生成的基本特征，并有助于阐明潜在的免疫治疗机制。此外，还总结了用于TME实时可视化的各种标记工具、成像窗口和模型。我们还将探讨利用活体成像规避现有成像方式局限性的全部潜力，这有望为癌症患者带来高效的免疫治疗。
