This Research Topic is the second volume in this series, "Community Series in The Immune Escape Mechanism and Novel Immunotherapeutic Strategies of Leukemia". Please see volume I
here.
Leukemia is mainly caused by the abnormalities of leukemia cells themselves, but immune cells in the tumor microenvironment also play a key role in the occurrence and development of leukemia. Although some immunotherapy strategies including donor lymphocyte infusion and CAR-T cell therapy have been demonstrated in certain leukemia subtypes, little progress has been made in the field of immunotherapy for most leukemia subtypes. Consequently, it is critical to understand the mechanisms of leukemia immune escape and apply them to immunotherapy strategies for leukemia.
The aberration of the immune system has been found in various leukemia subtypes, where effective immune cells are compromised but the number and activity of regulatory immune cells are increased. Major mechanisms of immune tolerance require in-depth study, including degradation of metabolically important amino acids, production of immunosuppressive cytokines, increased expression of negative costimulatory ligands on leukemia cells, and expansion of regulatory immune cells such as regulatory T cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, and macrophages in the leukemia microenvironment. Moreover, the functions and roles of some novel immune components such as platelets and cytokines in the microenvironment also need to be identified.
The goal of this Research Topic is to provide a forum to advance research on the contribution and mechanistic dissection of the immune escape to the genesis and development of leukemia. We also aim to explore innovative immunological interventions to achieve a beneficial impact on the outcome of leukemia.
We welcome Original Research and Review Articles including, but not limited to, the bullet points below:
1) Mechanisms of immune escape in leukemia
2) Mechanisms of immune escape after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
3) Mechanism of leukemia immune escape after immunotherapy (e.g., Immune checkpoint inhibitors, etc.)
4) Novel immune cells or molecules in the leukemia microenvironment
5) Differentiation of immune cells in the leukemia microenvironment
6) Human clinical trials using immunotherapy against leukemia (e.g., Immune checkpoint inhibitors, Chimeric antigen receptor T cells, etc.)
7) Combination therapy studies in leukemia (e.g., Immune checkpoint inhibitors + chemotherapeutic drugs or targeted drugs)
8) Innovative immune intervention strategies for leukemia (e.g., Novel immune checkpoint inhibitors, etc.)
9) Personalized immunotherapy for leukemia (e.g., chimeric antigen receptor T cells, etc.)
10) Immunotherapeutic drug delivery systems
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.