Diseases, especially cancer, suppress the immune system and compromise the body’s biological mechanisms needed to defend itself from the disease. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a key therapeutic innovation that helps restore some of the immune system’s ability to combat tumors.
This blog post will define different features of immune checkpoint inhibitors and provide a brief overview of how these checkpoint inhibitors play a role in disease research and therapeutic development – particularly in regard to cancer and oncology studies.
Characteristics of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors
Tumor cells are dangerous because they can elude immune system defences [1]. One such way tumor cells can do this is by suppressing anti-tumor responses by activating immune checkpoint pathways. Immune checkpoint inhibitors were developed to inhibit the checkpoint pathway that stops an immune response against tumors, effectively re-activating the immune system to detect and destroy tumor cells [1].
Specifically, checkpoint inhibitors target inhibitory receptors on T cells which are immune cells that are responsible for protecting the body against disease [2]. Cancer researchers have designed antibodies to act as immune checkpoint inhibitors, some of which have been approved to be tested in clinical trials or even used in clinical cases for certain types of cancer. Chief among these checkpoint inhibitors are PD-1 and CTLA-4, which have shown enormous promise in cancer therapeutics [1,2].
Continuing to Improve Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Disease Research
Immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy is promising in oncology. However, it’s efficacy can continue to be improved. Only a percentage of cancer patients respond to this type of therapy and some that do can have low response rates [1,2]. Thus, research into multiple factors or biomarkers that can help predict or determine the response to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy for cancer is critical [2]. Furthermore, work to also target other types of cells, like lymphoid cells which mirror some functions and abilities of T cells in the immune system, holds potential to bolster the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. These are a few reasons why robust platforms and tools are necessary to keep pace with innovative science as researchers continue to move toward improving existing checkpoint inhibitor therapies in biomedicine and further personalizing immunotherapy for cancer patients.
Looking for Support in Pre-Clinical & Clinical Research?
As a world leader in biomarker and bioanalysis research services, Synexa Life Sciences supports clients in pre-clinical and clinical immune-oncology research. By providing a range of effective products and services to researchers across the globe, we are a key player in the therapeutics research and development industry. Our life science experts work with clients to design and deliver the best solutions customized to infectious disease and cancer research needs – including flow cytometry panels to characterise circulating immune cell subsets and determine the effects of immune cell-targeting therapeutics and a range of panels to assess the functions of T cells such as cytokine production and proliferation.
If you are interested in learning more about immune checkpoint inhibitors for your specific immunological and therapeutic studies, please reach out to a team member today and we will be happy to work with you to address and solve any challenges.
Sources:
- Darvin, P., Toor, S. M., Sasidharan Nair, V., & Elkord, E. (2018). Immune checkpoint inhibitors: recent progress and potential biomarkers. Experimental & Molecular Medicine, 50(12), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s12276-018-0191-1
- Havel, J. J., Chowell, D., & Chan, T. A. (2019). The evolving landscape of biomarkers for checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy. Nature Reviews Cancer, 19(3), 133–150. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-019-0116-x
