Autophagy in Cancer Immunotherapy

Abstract

Autophagy is a stress-induced process that eliminates damaged organelles and dysfunctional cargos in cytoplasm, including unfolded proteins. Autophagy is involved in constructing the immunosuppressive microenvironment during tumor initiation and progression. It appears to be one of the most common processes involved in cancer immunotherapy, playing bidirectional roles in immunotherapy. Accumulating evidence suggests that inducing or inhibiting autophagy contributes to immunotherapy efficacy. Hence, exploring autophagy targets and their modifiers to control autophagy in the tumor microenvironment is an emerging strategy to facilitate cancer immunotherapy. This review summarizes recent studies on the role of autophagy in cancer immunotherapy, as well as the molecular targets of autophagy that could wake up the immune response in the tumor microenvironment, aiming to shed light on its immense potential as a therapeutic target to improve immunotherapy.

Phenolic Extract from Extra Virgin Olive Oil Induces Different Anti-Proliferative Pathways in Human Bladder Cancer Cell Lines

“…It is an intracellular catabolic process that degrades and recycles misfolded, damaged, or aggregated proteins and whole organelles. Autophagy can have an anti-carcinogenic role in normal cells, but aberrations in its pathways can impact gene derangements, cell metabolism, immune surveillance, metastasis, and tumor drug resistance [ 58 , 64 , 65 , 66 ]. Instead, apoptosis is a genetically programmed form of cell death triggered by diverse stimuli, both extracellular signals and intracellular events.…”

Immunotherapy: cancer immunotherapy and its combination with nanomaterials and other therapies

“…45 The combination of ICIs and autophagy inhibitors can eliminate the pro-tumor effect of autophagy and inhibit tumor growth at the same time. 46 ICIs have contributed to the stable remission of cancer in millions of patients. 47 ICIs have increased the likelihood of long-term survival for patients with metastatic disease and have led to new treatments, ushering in a significant new era in cancer therapy.…”

R(h)oad to antitumour therapy

“…Importantly, although autophagy plays a dual role in tumour promotion and suppression in many cancers, inhibition of autophagy plays a vital role in cancer immunotherapy. Studies have shown that altering the autophagic process by inhibiting or inducing can promote the effectiveness of immunotherapy 3,4 . Immunogenic cell death (ICD) is a distinctive immune response induced by anticancer chemotherapeutics resulting in cell death induced by cellular stress and eventually release of damage‐associated molecular patterns 5,6 .…”

“…Studies have shown that altering the autophagic process by inhibiting or inducing can promote the effectiveness of immunotherapy. 3,4 Immunogenic cell death (ICD) is a distinctive immune response induced by anticancer chemotherapeutics resulting in cell death induced by cellular stress and eventually release of damage-associated molecular patterns. 5,6 Pharmacologyinducing ICD activates autophagy in tumour cells, which together with radiotherapy/chemotherapy boosts efficacy by promoting ICD.…”