T-cell Immunity and Cancer Immunotherapy

Dear Colleagues, 

The last decade has witnessed immense progress in cancer therapy, particularly in the field of immune-cell-based therapy or immunotherapy. This has resulted extensive research into the therapeutic potential of the immune system. Much of this progress is attributed to check-point inhibitors targeting the PD-1-mediated exhaustion in T cells. The key reason that neoplasia cells, leading to cancer, are able to establish themselves and progress is the ability of these cell to evade the multi-layered immune surveillance mechanisms. Cytotoxic T cells, otherwise equipped to fight such invasions, are rendered dysfunctional after chronic exposure to antigen. Dysfunctional T cells, with decreased proliferative capacity, loss of effector function, and overexpression of inhibitory receptors are thus unable to respond, despite the presence of stimulatory cues. One of the main foci in the field of immunotherapy has the attempt been to harness the potential of T cells to clear cancers. Checkpoint blockades, adoptive T-cell therapy and CART-cell immunotherapies are based on reinvigorating T-cell effector function. 

Although these novel therapeutic strategies have revolutionized the field of cancer therapy and improved the quality of life for a number of cancer patients, there are several challenges that need to be overcome to make immune cell-mediated therapy into the most efficient form of treatment. These include incomplete remission, high rate of disease relapse, T-cell-related toxicity (CRS) and resistance to immunotherapy. Affirming the need to a deeper understanding of T-cell biology to be able to harness the effector functions of T-cells in cancer therapy.

The aim of this Special issue aligned to this notion and focuses on bringing together a collection of high-quality research providing further insight into T-cell biology and novel findings that can impact the endeavor to improve cancer immunotherapy.

This special issue invites original research or review papers defining critical molecular players and cellular processes regulating T-cell effector function.

Dr. Nimi Marcel
Dr. Suyasha Roy
Guest Editors

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• cancer-immuntherapy
• tumor immuntherapy
• immune checkpoint inhibitors
• T-cell adoptive therapy
• CART-cell therapy
• T-cell toxicity