Immunotherapy or biological therapy is the treatment of disease by activating or suppressing the immune system. Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies, while immunotherapies that reduce or suppress are classified as suppression immunotherapies. Immunotherapy is under preliminary research for its potential to treat various forms of cancer.
A cancer vaccine, or oncovaccine, is a vaccine that either treats existing cancer or prevents development of cancer. Vaccines that treat existing cancer are known as therapeutic cancer vaccines or tumor antigen vaccines. Some of the vaccines are "autologous", being prepared from samples taken from the patient, and are specific to that patient.
In biology, chimeric antigen receptors (CARs)—also known as chimeric immunoreceptors, chimeric T cell receptors or artificial T cell receptors—are receptor proteins that have been engineered to give T cells the new ability to target a specific antigen. The receptors are chimeric in that they combine both antigen-binding and T cell activating functions into a single receptor.
Cancer immunotherapy (immuno-oncotherapy) is the stimulation of the immune system to treat cancer, improving the immune system's natural ability to fight the disease. It is an application of the fundamental research of cancer immunology (immuno-oncology) and a growing subspecialty of oncology.
An antigen-presenting cell (APC) or accessory cell is a cell that displays an antigen bound by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins on its surface; this process is known as antigen presentation. T cells may recognize these complexes using their T cell receptors (TCRs). APCs process antigens and present them to T cells.
Targeted therapy or molecularly targeted therapy is one of the major modalities of medical treatment (pharmacotherapy) for cancer, others being hormonal therapy and cytotoxic chemotherapy. As a form of molecular medicine, targeted therapy blocks the growth of cancer cells by interfering with specific targeted molecules needed for carcinogenesis and tumor growth, rather than by simply interfering with all rapidly dividing cells. Because most agents for targeted therapy are biopharmaceuticals, the term biologic therapy is sometimes synonymous with targeted therapy when used in the context of cancer therapy. However, the modalities can be combined; antibody-drug conjugates combine biologic and cytotoxic mechanisms into one targeted therapy.
Cancer immunology (immuno-oncology) is an interdisciplinary branch of biology and a sub-discipline of immunology that is concerned with understanding the role of the immune system in the progression and development of cancer; the most well known application is cancer immunotherapy, which utilises the immune system as a treatment for cancer. Cancer immunosurveillance and immunoediting are based on protection against development of tumors in animal systems and (ii) identification of targets for immune recognition of human cancer.
Cancer/testis antigen 1 also known as LAGE2 or LAGE2B is a protein that in humans is encoded by the CTAG1B gene. It is most often referenced by its alias NY-ESO-1.
Melanoma-associated antigen 3 (MAGE-A3) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the MAGEA3 gene.
PRAME is a protein that in humans is encoded by the PRAME gene. Five alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding the same protein have been observed for this gene.
Bi-specific T-cell engagers (BiTEs) are a class of artificial bispecific monoclonal antibodies that are investigated for use as anti-cancer drugs. They direct a host's immune system, more specifically the T cells' cytotoxic activity, against cancer cells. BiTE is a registered trademark of Micromet AG.
Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) is the transfer of cells into a patient. The cells may have originated from the patient or from another individual. The cells are most commonly derived from the immune system with the goal of improving immune functionality and characteristics. In autologous cancer immunotherapy, T cells are extracted from the patient, genetically modified and cultured in vitro and returned to the same patient. Comparatively, allogeneic therapies involve cells isolated and expanded from a donor separate from the patient receiving the cells.
Molecular oncology is an interdisciplinary medical specialty at the interface of medicinal chemistry and oncology that refers to the investigation of the chemistry of cancer and tumors at the molecular scale. Also the development and application of molecularly targeted therapies.
Urelumab is a fully human, non‐ligand binding, CD137 agonist immunoglobulin‐γ 4 (IgG4) monoclonal antibody. It was developed utilizing Medarex's UltiMAb(R) technology by Bristol-Myers Squibb for the treatment of cancer and solid tumors. Urelumab promotes anti-tumor immunity, or an immune response against tumor cells, via CD137 activation. The application of Urelumab has been limited due to the fact that it can cause severe liver toxicity.
Kite Pharma is an American biotechnology company that develops cancer immunotherapy products with a primary focus on genetically engineered autologous CAR T cell therapy - a cell-based therapy which relies on chimeric antigen receptors and T cells. Founded in 2009, and based in Santa Monica, California, it was acquired by Gilead Sciences in 2017.
Cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK) cells are a group of immune effector cells featuring a mixed T- and natural killer (NK) cell-like phenotype. They are generated by ex vivo incubation of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) or cord blood mononuclear cells with interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), anti-CD3 antibody, recombinant human interleukin (IL)-1 and recombinant human interleukin (IL)-2.
Cancer/testis (CT) antigens are a group of proteins united by their importance in development and in cancer immunotherapy. In general, expression of these proteins is restricted to male germ cells in the adult animal. However, in cancer these developmental antigens are often re-expressed and can serve as a locus of immune activation. Thus, they are often classified as tumor antigens. The expression of CT antigens in various malignancies is heterogeneous and often correlates with tumor progression. CT antigens have been described in melanoma, liver cancer, lung cancer, bladder cancer, and pediatric tumors such as neuroblastoma. Gametogenesis offers an important role for many of these antigens in the differentiation, migration, and cell division of primordial germ cells, spermatogonia spermatocytes and spermatids. Because of their tumor-restricted expression and strong in vivo immunogenicity, CT antigens are identified as ideal targets for tumor specific immunotherapeutic approaches and prompted the development of several clinical trials of CT antigens-based vaccine therapy. CT antigens have been found to have at least 70 families so far, including about 140 members, most of which are expressed during spermatogenesis. Their expression are mainly regulated by epigenetic events, specifically, DNA methylation.
T lymphocytes are cells of the immune system that attack and destroy virus-infected cells, tumor cells and cells from transplanted organs. This occurs because each T cell is endowed with a highly specific receptor that can bind to an antigen present at the surface of another cell. The T cell receptor binds to a complex formed by a surface protein named "MHC" and a small peptide of about 9 amino-acids, which is located in a groove of the MHC molecule. This peptide can originate from a protein that remains within the cell. Whereas each T cell recognizes a single antigen, collectively the T cells are endowed with a large diversity of receptors targeted at a wide variety of antigens. T cells originate in the thymus. There a process named central tolerance eliminates the T cells that have a receptor recognizing an antigen present on normal cells of the organism. This enables the T cells to eliminate cells with "foreign" or "abnormal" antigens without harming the normal cells.
Checkpoint inhibitor therapy is a form of cancer immunotherapy. The therapy targets immune checkpoints, key regulators of the immune system that when stimulated can dampen the immune response to an immunologic stimulus. Some cancers can protect themselves from attack by stimulating immune checkpoint targets. Checkpoint therapy can block inhibitory checkpoints, restoring immune system function. The first anti-cancer drug targeting an immune checkpoint was ipilimumab, a CTLA4 blocker approved in the United States in 2011.
Cellular adoptive immunotherapy is a type of immunotherapy. Immune cells such as T-cells are usually isolated from patients for expansion or engineering purposes and reinfused back into patients to fight diseases using their own immune system. A major application of cellular adoptive therapy is cancer treatment, as the immune system plays a vital role in the development and growth of cancer. The primary types of cellular adoptive immunotherapies are T cell therapies. Other therapies include CAR-T therapy, CAR-NK therapy, macrophage-based immunotherapy and dendritic cell therapy.
