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REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1526137

The Potential Applications of Peptide-Loading Complex in Cancer Treatment

Provisionally accepted
Zhidu Song Zhidu Song 1Ying Tao Ying Tao 2Jiaxin You Jiaxin You 1*
  • 1 Department of Ophthalmology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Jilin University, Changhcun, Jilin Province, China
  • 2 China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Department of Anesthesiology, Changchun, China

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

    Immunotherapy for cancer has made significant strides in the last several years. The prognosis for cancer patients has significantly improved as a result, particularly in the hematological diseases.However, it was discovered that translating these achievements to solid tumors proved challenging. The peptide-loading complex (PLC), a temporary multisubunit membrane assembly in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), is crucial for initiating a hierarchical immune response.Chaperones calreticulin and tapasin make up the PLC, unique to class I glycoproteins, thiooxidoreductase ERp57, and a transporter associated with antigen processing. The loading and editing of major histocompatibility complex class -I (MHC-I) molecules with peptide translocation into the ER are synchronized by the PLC. One of the immune escape strategies revealed for tumors so far is changes in the expression of MHC molecules. This is because MHC antigens are crucial in presenting antigens to T-lymphocytes and controlling NK cell activity. Furthermore, decreased MHC-I expression has been linked to malignancies resistant to T-cell-based cancer immunotherapies (adoptive transfer of antitumor CD8 T-cells or checkpoint inhibition). The PLC is essential for T-cell priming, differentiation, and tumor growth control because it can bind to a wide range of MHC-I allomorphs. In this review, we have looked into PLC's function and effects in all forms of cancer to improve cancer therapy techniques.

    Keywords: peptide-loading complex, Cancer, Immunotherapy, Major histocompatibility complex (MHC), cancer vaccine, Treatment

    Received: 11 Nov 2024; Accepted: 05 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Song, Tao and You. 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: Jiaxin You, Department of Ophthalmology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Jilin University, Changhcun, 130041, Jilin Province, China

    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.