Journal
CELLS
Volume 10, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/cells10061332
Keywords
hepatocellular carcinoma; NK cell; CTL; viral hepatitis; immunotherapy
Categories
Funding
- American College of Gastroenterology
- National Comprehensive Cancer Network
- Bayer U.S. LLC. [NCCN-SORA0002]
- NCI [P30CA016056]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This article discusses the important roles of NK cells and T cells in liver immunity, as well as their functional abnormalities and their association with progression in HCC. Immune checkpoint inhibitors play a crucial role in intervening tumor development.
Natural killer (NK) cells account for 25-50% of the total number of hepatic lymphocytes, which implicates that NK cells play an important role in liver immunity. The frequencies of both circulating and tumor infiltrating NK cells are positively correlated with survival benefit in hepatocellular cancer (HCC) and have prognostic implications, which suggests that functional impairment in NK cells and HCC progression are strongly associated. In HCC, T cell exhaustion is accompanied by the interaction between immune checkpoint ligands and their receptors on tumor cells and antigen presenting cells (APC). Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been shown to interfere with this interaction and have altered the therapeutic landscape of multiple cancer types including HCC. Immunotherapy with check-point inhibitors, aimed at rescuing T-cells from exhaustion, has been applied as first-line therapy for HCC. NK cells are the first line effectors in viral hepatitis and play an important role by directly eliminating virus infected cells or by activating antigen specific T cells through IFN-gamma production. Furthermore, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered NK cells and T cells offer unique opportunities to create CAR-NK with multiple specificities learning from the experience gained with CAR-T cells with potentially less adverse effects. This review focus on the abnormalities of NK cells, T cells, and their functional impairment in patients with chronic viral hepatitis, which contributes to progression to hepatic malignancy. Furthermore, we discuss and summarize recent advances in the NK cell and T cell based immunotherapeutic approaches in HCC.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available