The common axis for autoimmune disease and cancer as two separate fields of research is immunogenicity and break of immune tolerance. Self-tolerance is essential for the body to prevent immune system from recognising and mounting response directed against our own tissues while it is key for cancer cells to camouflage themselves from immune surveillance for immune evasion.
The discovery and deeper understanding of immune checkpoint pathways proved that studying immune suppression in autoimmunity can be highly educative to the innovation of novel therapeutic anti-cancer drugs by releasing the ‘break’ of immunity. A typical example of this is PD-1 blockade antibody including Nivolumab or Opdivo by BMS and Pembrolizumab or Keytruda by Merck in clinic for treating cancer and PD-1 agonist such as Peresolimab by Eli Lilly in Phase 2 clinic trial for the use in autoimmune or inflammatory diseases.
Immune checkpoints are commonly known as co-inhibitory molecules tuning down second signal of T cell activation that is antigen non-specific. This universal T cell stimulation using immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) can cause autoimmune and inflammatory complications and negatively affect our own body. These immune-related adverse events (irAEs) often occur early after treatment and their toxicity can be severe in up to 27% of single agent CTLA-4 blockade treated patients, 20% of those receiving anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antagonists and about 55% with combination therapy. It is not unreasonable to predict a potential increase of compromised immunity against pathogens and cancer after therapy using agonist to immune checkpoints.
Immune regulation is a fine and delicate balance between controlling autoimmunity from happening and allowing potent immune response against foreign invasion by pathogen and malignant transformation from normal cell. The ultimate goal is to manipulate immune response that is specific to the target whether it is a self-antigen in autoreactivity or tumor antigen in cancer without introducing unwanted systemic side effects. This Research Topic aims to collect the latest advances in this area in any format of Original Research, Systematic Review, Methods, Review, Mini Review, Perspective, Clinical Trial, Case Report, Brief Research Report and Opinion articles.
· Indication: autoimmune disease such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and multiple sclerosis (MS) and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) etc.; inflammatory diseases including radiation enteritis (RE) and those in central nervous system; solid tumors eg. hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), Gliomas, esophageal cancer.
· Stem cell: mechanisms underlying development, stemness maintenance and immune evasion of cancer stem cells (CSCs). Novel strategies reversing immunotherapeutic resistance of CSCs; mapping hematopoiesis and hematopoietic stem cell fate under stress conditions.
· AI: Bioinformatics or computational analysis of experimental results and public genomic or transcriptomic database
· Combination therapy in cancer: radiotherapy and chemotherapy drugs with immunotherapy (eg. PD-1 inhibitor) including dosage and schedule; oncolytic viruses with ICIs and chemotherapy etc.; preserving intestinal flora such as Akkermansia muciniphila with immunotherapy to treat HCC; immune cell gene therapy.
· Microenvironment: dissecting cell-cell physical interactions in tumor-immune crosstalk.
· irAEs: effect of immunotherapy in gynaecologic cancer on reproductivity in women; correlation between autoimmune diseases including treatment and risk of malignant tumors plus its impact on prognosis.
Please note that manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by robust and relevant validation (clinical cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this Research Topic.
Keywords:
Autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune hepatitis, cancer, stem cell, immunotherapy, combination therapy, artificial intelligence, tumor microenvironment, traditional Chinese medicine, immunotherapy related adverse event, immune checkpoint
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.
The common axis for autoimmune disease and cancer as two separate fields of research is immunogenicity and break of immune tolerance. Self-tolerance is essential for the body to prevent immune system from recognising and mounting response directed against our own tissues while it is key for cancer cells to camouflage themselves from immune surveillance for immune evasion.
The discovery and deeper understanding of immune checkpoint pathways proved that studying immune suppression in autoimmunity can be highly educative to the innovation of novel therapeutic anti-cancer drugs by releasing the ‘break’ of immunity. A typical example of this is PD-1 blockade antibody including Nivolumab or Opdivo by BMS and Pembrolizumab or Keytruda by Merck in clinic for treating cancer and PD-1 agonist such as Peresolimab by Eli Lilly in Phase 2 clinic trial for the use in autoimmune or inflammatory diseases.
Immune checkpoints are commonly known as co-inhibitory molecules tuning down second signal of T cell activation that is antigen non-specific. This universal T cell stimulation using immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) can cause autoimmune and inflammatory complications and negatively affect our own body. These immune-related adverse events (irAEs) often occur early after treatment and their toxicity can be severe in up to 27% of single agent CTLA-4 blockade treated patients, 20% of those receiving anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antagonists and about 55% with combination therapy. It is not unreasonable to predict a potential increase of compromised immunity against pathogens and cancer after therapy using agonist to immune checkpoints.
Immune regulation is a fine and delicate balance between controlling autoimmunity from happening and allowing potent immune response against foreign invasion by pathogen and malignant transformation from normal cell. The ultimate goal is to manipulate immune response that is specific to the target whether it is a self-antigen in autoreactivity or tumor antigen in cancer without introducing unwanted systemic side effects. This Research Topic aims to collect the latest advances in this area in any format of Original Research, Systematic Review, Methods, Review, Mini Review, Perspective, Clinical Trial, Case Report, Brief Research Report and Opinion articles.
· Indication: autoimmune disease such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and multiple sclerosis (MS) and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) etc.; inflammatory diseases including radiation enteritis (RE) and those in central nervous system; solid tumors eg. hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), Gliomas, esophageal cancer.
· Stem cell: mechanisms underlying development, stemness maintenance and immune evasion of cancer stem cells (CSCs). Novel strategies reversing immunotherapeutic resistance of CSCs; mapping hematopoiesis and hematopoietic stem cell fate under stress conditions.
· AI: Bioinformatics or computational analysis of experimental results and public genomic or transcriptomic database
· Combination therapy in cancer: radiotherapy and chemotherapy drugs with immunotherapy (eg. PD-1 inhibitor) including dosage and schedule; oncolytic viruses with ICIs and chemotherapy etc.; preserving intestinal flora such as Akkermansia muciniphila with immunotherapy to treat HCC; immune cell gene therapy.
· Microenvironment: dissecting cell-cell physical interactions in tumor-immune crosstalk.
· irAEs: effect of immunotherapy in gynaecologic cancer on reproductivity in women; correlation between autoimmune diseases including treatment and risk of malignant tumors plus its impact on prognosis.
Please note that manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by robust and relevant validation (clinical cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this Research Topic.
Keywords:
Autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune hepatitis, cancer, stem cell, immunotherapy, combination therapy, artificial intelligence, tumor microenvironment, traditional Chinese medicine, immunotherapy related adverse event, immune checkpoint
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.