Hello JITC Readers,
Welcome to the latest edition of the JITC digest, arriving in your inbox as the Winter Olympics are ongoing in Beijing, China. Perhaps our JITC readers
may see some similarities between the biathletes’ precision target
shooting and the specificity of CAR T cells eradicating tumors. While
the thrill of reading a paper with provocative new data likely cannot
compare to the adrenaline rush of landing a triple axel or speeding down
a ski slope at a speed of more than 70 miles per hour, we know that JITC deserves a medal for the top-quality immunotherapy research appearing in the journal each month.JITC would not even make it to the podium, however, without the volunteers who support the journal in a variety of capacities. This month’s special feature is dedicated to the family of JITC volunteers, including the anonymous peer reviewers who are so essential to maintaining the high standards of our journal and the social media editors who help spread the word about the latest immunotherapy research to a global audience.
The original research articles highlighted in this month’s digest feature three novel mechanisms to heat up cold tumors and one surprising strategy to potentiate adoptive cell therapies.
Alycia Gardner and colleagues reveal a new function for TIM-3 blockade in reorganization of the tumor microenvironment leading to enhanced functionality of intratumoral cytotoxic T cells.
Immune exclusion in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is overcome by a novel bioavailable scavenger reagent by Francesco De Sanctis et al, who also provide evidence that telomerase expression may be amenable to targeting via adoptive cell therapy in this disease.
An engineered IL-2 with extended serum half-life and negligible binding to the high affinity receptor expressed on T regulatory cells is demonstrated to offer robust tumor control as monotherapy and in combination with anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 in multiple pre-clinical models by Rosemina Merchant and colleagues.
B cells are identified as necessary and sufficient for potentiation of adoptive cell therapies expanded in the presence of toll-like receptor 9 agonists, further adding to our emerging understanding of the role of non-CD8+ T cells in immunotherapy efficacy.
Warm Regards,
Pedro J. Romero, MD
Editor-in-Chief, Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer
