T Cells in Inflammation and Cancer

Dear Colleagues,

We are in a remarkable time of change and innovation in biomedical science and medicine, with T cells standing formidably at the center. Recent groundbreaking discoveries and innovations driven by T cells are highlighted by a few key examples. First, the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines have protected potentially hundreds of millions of people by generating robust anti-viral T cell memory. While initially expected to work primarily through the production of neutralizing antibodies, their effectiveness has been largely governed by T cell memory formation, especially as mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2 became dominant. Next is the advent of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy. Many patients have been diagnosed with advanced cancer that was unresponsive to traditional cancer therapies but have been able to achieve remission with ICI treatment. ICIs unleash anti-tumor T cell responses that may be otherwise subdued by the immunosuppressive conditions of advanced cancer patients. Although this treatment modality is effective for only a subset of patients, it is still revolutionary because it offers a lifeline to individuals who would otherwise have no viable treatment options. Finally, the biomedical advancement in our time has achieved more than 70% remission of certain types of advanced hematopoietic cancer by using adoptive cell therapy of engineered T cells, known as CAR T cell therapy. Importantly, all these achievements were made possible by decade-long collective efforts of numerous research teams over time and across regions. These successes are especially owed to the in-depth knowledge accumulated in classical T cell immunology, such as T cell immunity to pathogens. As such, this Special Issue hopes to be a forum for broadly discussing the immunology of T lymphocytes.

Topics include the following:

• The protective and pathological roles of T cells in diseases, particularly inflammatory, infectious, and cancerous conditions;
• The molecular, (epi)genetic, cellular, metabolic, and environmental mechanisms underlying T cell (dys)functions;
• The crosstalk between T cell immunity and other components of the immune system or non-immune parts of the body;
• Cutting-edge technologies and new methods for studying and understanding T cell immunobiology;
• Immunotherapies designed to activate, control, or harness T cells.

Dr. Kihong Lim
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• T cell
• immunity
• disease
• infection
• cancer
• inflammation
• pathology
• immunotherapy