About this Research Topic
T cell-mediated immunity plays a pivotal role against cancer development and progression. Recent advancement in fundamental T cell biology has revolutionized cancer therapies, including immune-checkpoint blockade (ICB), adoptive T cell therapy (ACT) and cancer vaccinology. Effective anti-tumor immunity generally involves tumor antigen releasing, activation of naïve T cells by antigen-presenting cells (APCs), migration into the tumor microenvironment (TME), and circumvention of immunosuppression. Accumulating evidence now underscores the importance of epigenetic regulations in this processing, while their pharmacological modulation, like drugs targeting DNA methylation and histone modifications, can augment the efficiency of immunotherapy to unleash anti-tumor T-cell responses. However, nonspecific epigenetic-modifying agents can also reactivate other molecules and interrupt immune surveillance programs. By understanding the impact of epigenetic control of different aspects of T cell immunity for the design of rational combinatorial epigenetic and immunotherapy could potentially harness the immune system for the treatment of cancer.
Epigenetic therapy provides new opportunities to rewire cancer transcriptional programs, but whether and how selective epigenetic inhibition counteracts the immune microenvironment to sensitize immunotherapy remains incompletely defined. Therefore, understanding the epigenomes of a tumor and tumor-associated immune cells may provide opportunities to rewire the transcriptional network that drive the hallmark traits of a tumor and design precise combinatory immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. The goal of this research topic is to explore the potential precise mechanisms towards immune cell types or cancer types from pre-clinical and clinical evidence for future precise combinatory therapy design.
The aim of this Research Topic is to gather scientific contributions (Review or Research Articles) from any groups working on crosstalk of epigenetics and tumor immunology. Specific topics are listed below but are not limited to:
-epigenetic regulatory mechanisms in T cells
-epigenetic regulatory mechanisms in immunosuppressive cells
-epigenetic drugs in promoting T cell-based immunotherapy in cancers
-combinatory epigenetic and immunotherapy in cancer clinical trials
-epigenetic biomarkers for immunotherapy
Epigenetic therapy provides new opportunities to rewire cancer transcriptional programs, but whether and how selective epigenetic inhibition counteracts the immune microenvironment to sensitize immunotherapy remains incompletely defined. Therefore, understanding the epigenomes of a tumor and tumor-associated immune cells may provide opportunities to rewire the transcriptional network that drive the hallmark traits of a tumor and design precise combinatory immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. The goal of this research topic is to explore the potential precise mechanisms towards immune cell types or cancer types from pre-clinical and clinical evidence for future precise combinatory therapy design.
The aim of this Research Topic is to gather scientific contributions (Review or Research Articles) from any groups working on crosstalk of epigenetics and tumor immunology. Specific topics are listed below but are not limited to:
-epigenetic regulatory mechanisms in T cells
-epigenetic regulatory mechanisms in immunosuppressive cells
-epigenetic drugs in promoting T cell-based immunotherapy in cancers
-combinatory epigenetic and immunotherapy in cancer clinical trials
-epigenetic biomarkers for immunotherapy
Keywords: Adoptive T cell therapy, Antigen presentation, Cancer therapeutic vaccine, Epigenetic biomarkers, Epigenetic regulation, Immune checkpoint therapy, Immunosuppressive microenvironment, T cell tumor migration
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
