Pharmacological Targeting of Immune Checkpoints and Regulatory Pathways
A Special Issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247) belonging to the section "Pharmacology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2027 | Viewed by 309
Editors
Interests: solid tumors; immunotherapy; immune microenvironment; gynecologic cancer; clinical research methodology; biostatistics; precision medicine
Interests: head and neck squamous cell carcinomas; prognostic and predictive biomarkers; molecular classification; translational transcriptomic profiling; HPV-related disease
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The immune system is governed by a finely balanced network of immune checkpoints and regulatory pathways that preserve immune homeostasis while preventing excessive inflammation and autoimmunity. Dysregulation of these mechanisms is critically involved in the development and progression of cancer.
In recent years, pharmacological targeting of immune checkpoints has transformed therapeutic paradigms in cancer. Immune checkpoint therapy has emerged as a cornerstone of modern cancer treatment, complementing surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Inhibitors of key immune checkpoints, such as CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-L1, have demonstrated durable clinical benefits across a wide range of malignancies, including melanoma, lung cancer, renal cell carcinoma, bladder cancer and gynecological cancers. In selected patients, ICT enables long-term disease control and raises the prospect of functional cure.
Despite these remarkable achievements, several challenges limit the full clinical potential of ICT. Primary and acquired resistance to immune checkpoint blockade remains common, and immune-related adverse events resulting from excessive immune activation can be severe or life-threatening. Moreover, the lack of reliable predictive biomarkers continues to hinder optimal patient selection and therapeutic decision-making.
This Call for Papers invites the submission of paper addressing the pharmacology, molecular mechanisms, translational, preclinical, and clinical aspects of immune checkpoint blockade addressing for a Special Issue on “Pharmacological Targeting of Immune Checkpoints and Regulatory Pathways”.
We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
- Novel pharmacological modulators of immune checkpoints.
- Small-molecule inhibitors and biologics targeting immune-regulatory pathways.
- Mechanistic studies on signal transduction and immune cell regulation.
- Combination therapies involving immune checkpoint modulators in both early-stage and advanced cancers.
- Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic aspects of checkpoint inhibitors.
- Drug resistance and immune escape mechanisms.
- Translational studies and clinical updates in immunotherapy.
- Safety, toxicity, and immunomodulatory side effects of checkpoint-targeting agents.
- Critical challenges associated with ICT.
- Emerging precision immunotherapy approaches aimed at overcoming resistance, mitigating toxicity, and expanding the clinical applicability of immune checkpoint-based treatments.
We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions.
Dr. Monika Ducceschi
Dr. Stefano Cavalieri
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pharmaceuticals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- immunotherapy
- immune-regulatory pathways
- cancer
- precision medicine
- mechanism of resistance
- predictive biomarkers
- patient selection
- immune-related adverse events
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