Antibody-mediated delivery of viral epitopes to tumors harnesses CMV-specific T cells for cancer therapy

Nanotechnologies for enhancing cancer immunotherapy

“…Thus, it was concluded that photothermal therapy not only played its role in killing tumor cells and destroying extracellular matrix, but also improved the infiltration of CAR-T cells and the release of anti-tumor cytokines [173]. Strategies for mRNA modification [174], AND-gate circuits control [175], regulation of suppressive microenvironments [163,175], and conjugating with viral antigen peptide [176] are also under intensive study.…”

Quantifying the efficacy of checkpoint inhibitors on CD8+ cytotoxic T cells for immunotherapeutic applications via single-cell interaction

“…The Promega Cytotox 96 kit has been utilized frequently as a cytotoxicity assay for immune cells and was chosen as a standard comparison [25][26][27] . The protocol is described in detail in the Supplementary Methods.…”

Repurposing CD8 + T cell immunity against SARS-CoV-2 for cancer immunotherapy: a positive aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic?

“…Although antiviral and antitumor CD8 + T cells bear distinct T cell receptors (TCRs) against virus-and tumor-derived MHC-I-presented ligands (i.e., epitopes), respectively, newly reported immunotherapy strategies now allow for 'repurposing' of antiviral CD8 + T cells for antitumor functions. 9,10 For this purpose, synthetic immunogenic viral epitopes are administered in a way that they bind to MHC-I molecules on the surface of tumor cells. These viral epitope-presenting tumor cells simulate a reinfection event and 'trick' antiviral CD8 + T cells into an anticancer attack.…”

“…Antiviral CD8 + T cells specific for previously encountered viral infections (e.g., cytomegalovirus [CMV], Epstein-Barr virus [EBV], influenza virus) are abundantly found within human tumors, and have been successfully repurposed to induce antitumor immune responses. [9][10][11][12] Considering the relatively recent emergence and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in humans, the underlying antiviral adaptive immune response is expected to display appropriate epitope dominancy devoid of features of 'antigenic sin' observed for common infections like influenza. Evidence thus far shows that prototypical effector and memory CD8 + T cell responses are observed in patients who have recovered from COVID-19.…”

“… 9 This repurposing of antiviral CD8 + T cells for anticancer therapy is potentiated by the actions of ICIs that are currently approved for clinical use. 9 , 10 Of note, possible systemic side effects on healthy tissues within these repurposing approaches can be controlled by confining the expression of exogenously supplied viral peptide to the TME. These previously unknown nascent advances in the cancer immunotherapy field 9 , 10 now pave a new direction for exploiting preexisting antiviral CD8 + T cells arising from common human viral infections for antitumor therapeutic implications.…”