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Vaccines
Special Issues
Immunotherapy of Solid Tumors: Progress, Challenges, and Future Roadmap
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Immunotherapy of Solid Tumors: Progress, Challenges, and Future Roadmap

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Vaccines and Immunotherapy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 11363

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Shailendra Gautam

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biochemistry, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, USA
Interests: pancreatic cancer; breast cancer; metastasis; immunotherapy; animal model; therapy
Dr. Abhijit Aithal

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biochemistry, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, USA
Interests: immunology cell biology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Solid tumors are highly refractory to conventional therapeutic regimens, and a better clinical outcome still warrants early diagnosis and novel intervention approaches for long-lasting therapeutic response. In the last two decades, immunotherapy has demonstrated considerable success in cases of melanoma and lung cancer. In contrast, solid tumors such as pancreatic and brain tumors are poorly responsive to immunotherapy. Immunotherapy can either work by restimulating the patient’s immune system to recognize and attack the cancer-associated self-antigens or by passively transferring immune molecules or cells that can directly destroy cancer cells. However, the compromised immune surveillance and effector mechanisms allow malignant cells to proliferate and metastasize in cancer patients. Cancer cells themselves escape the host immune system by adopting different strategies, such as MHC downregulation and antigen presentation, activation of immune checkpoint pathways, and cytokine deregulation. In addition, crosstalk between suppressive immune cells and other stromal cells of the tumor microenvironment (TME) helps cancer cells to acquire resistance to immunotherapy. Therefore, it is essential to understand the physical, biochemical, and immunological challenges associated with solid malignancies to evaluate immunotherapy-based treatment approaches more critically and conclusively. This Special Issue aims to focus on understanding the ongoing challenges in optimizing immunotherapies for solid malignancies and highlighting endeavors to overcome such roadblocks. Studies in this issue will provide a future roadmap to optimize and evaluate immunotherapies to treat solid malignancies.

We look forward to your contributions.

Dr. Shailendra Gautam
Dr. Abhijit Aithal
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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.

Keywords

  • solid tumor immune microenvironment
  • immunosuppression
  • immune checkpoint blockade therapies
  • combination immunotherapy
  • immunotherapy for metastatic and recurrent tumors
  • immunotherapy resistance
  • experimental models for cancer immunotherapy

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 3082 KiB  
Article
Introduction of an Ultraviolet C-Irradiated 4T1 Murine Breast Cancer Whole-Cell Vaccine Model
by Gábor J. Szebeni, Róbert Alföldi, Lajos I. Nagy, Patrícia Neuperger, Nikolett Gémes, József Á. Balog, László Tiszlavicz and László G. Puskás
Vaccines 2023, 11(7), 1254; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11071254 - 18 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2422
Abstract
The advent of immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatments. However, the application of immune checkpoint inhibitors may entail severe side effects, with the risk of therapeutic resistance. The generation of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells or CAR-NK cells requires specialized molecular laboratories, is costly, [...] Read more.
The advent of immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatments. However, the application of immune checkpoint inhibitors may entail severe side effects, with the risk of therapeutic resistance. The generation of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells or CAR-NK cells requires specialized molecular laboratories, is costly, and is difficult to adapt to the rapidly growing number of cancer patients. To provide a simpler but effective immune therapy, a whole-cell tumor vaccine protocol was established based on ultraviolet C (UCV)-irradiated 4T1 triple-negative breast cancer cells. The apoptosis of tumor cells after UVC irradiation was verified using resazurin and Annexin V/propidium iodide flow cytometric assays. Protective immunity was achieved in immunized BALB/c mice, showing partial remission. Adoptive transfer of splenocytes or plasma from the mice in remission showed a protective effect in the naive BALB/c mice that received a living 4T1 tumor cell injection. 4T1-specific IgG antibodies were recorded in the plasma of the mice following immunization with the whole-cell vaccine. Interleukin-2 (IL-2) and oligonucleotide 2006 (ODN2006) adjuvants were used for the transfer of splenocytes from C57BL/6 mice into cyclophosphamide-treated BALB/c mice, resulting in prolonged survival, reduced tumor growth, and remission in 33% of the cases, without the development of the graft-versus-host disease. Our approach offers a simple, cost-effective whole-cell vaccine protocol that can be administered to immunocompetent healthy organisms. The plasma or the adoptive transfer of HLA-matching immunized donor-derived leukocytes could be used as an immune cell therapy for cancer patients. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Immunotherapy of Solid Tumors: Progress, Challenges, and Future Roadmap)
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Review

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30 pages, 3052 KiB  
Review
Macrophages as a Potential Immunotherapeutic Target in Solid Cancers
by Alok K. Mishra, Shahid Banday, Ravi Bharadwaj, Amjad Ali, Romana Rashid, Ankur Kulshreshtha and Sunil K. Malonia
Vaccines 2023, 11(1), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11010055 - 26 Dec 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3989
Abstract
The revolution in cancer immunotherapy over the last few decades has resulted in a paradigm shift in the clinical care of cancer. Most of the cancer immunotherapeutic regimens approved so far have relied on modulating the adaptive immune system. In recent years, strategies [...] Read more.
The revolution in cancer immunotherapy over the last few decades has resulted in a paradigm shift in the clinical care of cancer. Most of the cancer immunotherapeutic regimens approved so far have relied on modulating the adaptive immune system. In recent years, strategies and approaches targeting the components of innate immunity have become widely recognized for their efficacy in targeting solid cancers. Macrophages are effector cells of the innate immune system, which can play a crucial role in the generation of anti-tumor immunity through their ability to phagocytose cancer cells and present tumor antigens to the cells of adaptive immunity. However, the macrophages that are recruited to the tumor microenvironment predominantly play pro-tumorigenic roles. Several strategies targeting pro-tumorigenic functions and harnessing the anti-tumorigenic properties of macrophages have shown promising results in preclinical studies, and a few of them have also advanced to clinical trials. In this review, we present a comprehensive overview of the pathobiology of TAMs and their role in the progression of solid malignancies. We discuss various mechanisms through which TAMs promote tumor progression, such as inflammation, genomic instability, tumor growth, cancer stem cell formation, angiogenesis, EMT and metastasis, tissue remodeling, and immunosuppression, etc. In addition, we also discuss potential therapeutic strategies for targeting TAMs and explore how macrophages can be used as a tool for next-generation immunotherapy for the treatment of solid malignancies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Immunotherapy of Solid Tumors: Progress, Challenges, and Future Roadmap)
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31 pages, 2538 KiB  
Review
Recent Advances in Cancer Vaccines: Challenges, Achievements, and Futuristic Prospects
by Madhu Gupta, Abhishek Wahi, Priyanka Sharma, Riya Nagpal, Neha Raina, Monika Kaurav, Jaydeep Bhattacharya, Sonia M. Rodrigues Oliveira, Karma G. Dolma, Alok K. Paul, Maria de Lourdes Pereira, Polrat Wilairatana, Mohammed Rahmatullah and Veeranoot Nissapatorn
Vaccines 2022, 10(12), 2011; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10122011 - 25 Nov 2022
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4403
Abstract
Cancer is a chronic disease, and it can be lethal due to limited therapeutic options. The conventional treatment options for cancer have numerous challenges, such as a low blood circulation time as well as poor solubility of anticancer drugs. Therapeutic cancer vaccines emerged [...] Read more.
Cancer is a chronic disease, and it can be lethal due to limited therapeutic options. The conventional treatment options for cancer have numerous challenges, such as a low blood circulation time as well as poor solubility of anticancer drugs. Therapeutic cancer vaccines emerged to try to improve anticancer drugs’ efficiency and to deliver them to the target site. Cancer vaccines are considered a viable therapeutic technique for most solid tumors. Vaccines boost antitumor immunity by delivering tumor antigens, nucleic acids, entire cells, and peptides. Cancer vaccines are designed to induce long-term antitumor memory, causing tumor regression, eradicate minimal residual illness, and prevent non-specific or unpleasant effects. These vaccines can assist in the elimination of cancer cells from various organs or organ systems in the body, with minimal risk of tumor recurrence or metastasis. Vaccines and antigens for anticancer therapy are discussed in this review, including current vaccine adjuvants and mechanisms of action for various types of vaccines, such as DNA- or mRNA-based cancer vaccines. Potential applications of these vaccines focusing on their clinical use for better therapeutic efficacy are also discussed along with the latest research available in this field. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Immunotherapy of Solid Tumors: Progress, Challenges, and Future Roadmap)
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