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Cancer Stem Cells: Devil or Savior—Looking behind the Scenes of Immunotherapy Failure
Although the introduction of immunotherapy has tremendously improved the prognosis of patients with metastatic cancers of different histological origins, some tumors fail to respond or develop resistance. Broadening the clinical efficacy of currently available immunotherapy strategies requires an im...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7140486/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32120774 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells9030555 |
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author | Castagnoli, Lorenzo De Santis, Francesca Volpari, Tatiana Vernieri, Claudio Tagliabue, Elda Di Nicola, Massimo Pupa, Serenella M. |
author_facet | Castagnoli, Lorenzo De Santis, Francesca Volpari, Tatiana Vernieri, Claudio Tagliabue, Elda Di Nicola, Massimo Pupa, Serenella M. |
author_sort | Castagnoli, Lorenzo |
collection | PubMed |
description | Although the introduction of immunotherapy has tremendously improved the prognosis of patients with metastatic cancers of different histological origins, some tumors fail to respond or develop resistance. Broadening the clinical efficacy of currently available immunotherapy strategies requires an improved understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying cancer immune escape. Globally, tumor cells evade immune attack using two main strategies: avoiding recognition by immune cells and instigating an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Emerging data suggest that the clinical efficacy of chemotherapy or molecularly targeted therapy is related to the ability of these therapies to target cancer stem cells (CSCs). However, little is known about the role of CSCs in mediating tumor resistance to immunotherapy. Due to their immunomodulating features and plasticity, CSCs can be especially proficient at evading immune surveillance, thus potentially representing the most prominent malignant cell component implicated in primary or acquired resistance to immunotherapy. The identification of immunomodulatory properties of CSCs that include mechanisms that regulate their interactions with immune cells, such as bidirectional release of particular cytokines/chemokines, fusion of CSCs with fusogenic stromal cells, and cell-to-cell communication exerted by extracellular vesicles, may significantly improve the efficacy of current immunotherapy strategies. The purpose of this review is to discuss the current scientific evidence linking CSC biological, immunological, and epigenetic features to tumor resistance to immunotherapy. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7140486 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-71404862020-04-13 Cancer Stem Cells: Devil or Savior—Looking behind the Scenes of Immunotherapy Failure Castagnoli, Lorenzo De Santis, Francesca Volpari, Tatiana Vernieri, Claudio Tagliabue, Elda Di Nicola, Massimo Pupa, Serenella M. Cells Review Although the introduction of immunotherapy has tremendously improved the prognosis of patients with metastatic cancers of different histological origins, some tumors fail to respond or develop resistance. Broadening the clinical efficacy of currently available immunotherapy strategies requires an improved understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying cancer immune escape. Globally, tumor cells evade immune attack using two main strategies: avoiding recognition by immune cells and instigating an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Emerging data suggest that the clinical efficacy of chemotherapy or molecularly targeted therapy is related to the ability of these therapies to target cancer stem cells (CSCs). However, little is known about the role of CSCs in mediating tumor resistance to immunotherapy. Due to their immunomodulating features and plasticity, CSCs can be especially proficient at evading immune surveillance, thus potentially representing the most prominent malignant cell component implicated in primary or acquired resistance to immunotherapy. The identification of immunomodulatory properties of CSCs that include mechanisms that regulate their interactions with immune cells, such as bidirectional release of particular cytokines/chemokines, fusion of CSCs with fusogenic stromal cells, and cell-to-cell communication exerted by extracellular vesicles, may significantly improve the efficacy of current immunotherapy strategies. The purpose of this review is to discuss the current scientific evidence linking CSC biological, immunological, and epigenetic features to tumor resistance to immunotherapy. MDPI 2020-02-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7140486/ /pubmed/32120774 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells9030555 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Review Castagnoli, Lorenzo De Santis, Francesca Volpari, Tatiana Vernieri, Claudio Tagliabue, Elda Di Nicola, Massimo Pupa, Serenella M. Cancer Stem Cells: Devil or Savior—Looking behind the Scenes of Immunotherapy Failure |
title | Cancer Stem Cells: Devil or Savior—Looking behind the Scenes of Immunotherapy Failure |
title_full | Cancer Stem Cells: Devil or Savior—Looking behind the Scenes of Immunotherapy Failure |
title_fullStr | Cancer Stem Cells: Devil or Savior—Looking behind the Scenes of Immunotherapy Failure |
title_full_unstemmed | Cancer Stem Cells: Devil or Savior—Looking behind the Scenes of Immunotherapy Failure |
title_short | Cancer Stem Cells: Devil or Savior—Looking behind the Scenes of Immunotherapy Failure |
title_sort | cancer stem cells: devil or savior—looking behind the scenes of immunotherapy failure |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7140486/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32120774 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells9030555 |
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