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REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1490035
This article is part of the Research Topic RNA Modifications in Cancer: Unraveling Roles and Therapeutic Potential in Immunity and Immunotherapy View all 6 articles

Alternative Splicing of Modulatory Immune Receptors in T Lymphocytes: A Newly Identified and Targetable Mechanism for Anticancer Immunotherapy

Provisionally accepted
Shoshana Frankenburg Shoshana Frankenburg Michal Lotem Michal Lotem *Ori Stern Ori Stern Elad Zisman Elad Zisman Shay Tzaban Shay Tzaban
  • Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Alternative splicing is a mechanism that generates translational diversity within a genome. Equally important is the dynamic adaptability of the splicing machinery, which can give preference to one isoform over others encoded by a single gene. These isoform preferences change in response to the cell's state and function. Particularly significant is the impact of physiological alternative splicing in T lymphocytes, where specific isoforms can enhance or reduce the cells' reactivity to stimuli. This process makes splicing isoforms defining features of cell states, exemplified by CD45 splice isoforms, which characterize the transition from naïve to memory states. Two developments have accelerated the use of AS dynamics for therapeutic interventions: advancements in long-read RNA sequencing and progress in nucleic acid chemical modifications. Improved oligonucleotide stability has enabled their use in directing splicing to specific sites or modifying sequences to enhance or silence particular splicing events. This review highlights immune regulatory splicing patterns with potential significance for enhancing anticancer immunotherapy.

    Keywords: Alternative Splicing, Cancer, Immunotherapy, T lymphocytes, immune receptors

    Received: 02 Sep 2024; Accepted: 25 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Frankenburg, Lotem, Stern, Zisman and Tzaban. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Michal Lotem, Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.