The Role of Immune Checkpoints in Gastrointestinal Diseases

Immunotherapy based on immune checkpoint molecules is gradually becoming an important treatment strategy for gastrointestinal tumours and inflammation. This Research Topic will focus on the role of immune checkpoint molecules in gastrointestinal inflammation and tumours, the latest progress in the corresponding regulatory mechanisms. Meanwhile, this topic explores the similarities and differences of different immune checkpoint molecules in tumours such as gastric cancer and colorectal cancer and inflammatory diseases such as inflammatory bowel diseases, intestinal-related sepsis, and peritoneal infection. Furthermore, not only limited to oncology treatment, the application of immune checkpoint inhibitors extends to inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Thus, immunotherapy targeting immune checkpoint molecules offers great promise for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders.

Immunotherapy is one of the most cutting-edge fields in the current treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have been gradually applied in the clinical treatment of gastrointestinal tumours and have been gradually explored in gastrointestinal inflammatory diseases. However, whether the expression of different immune checkpoint molecules affects the selection of immune checkpoint molecular inhibitors, how to combine different immune checkpoint molecular inhibitors, and how to screen outpatients responsive to immune checkpoint molecular inhibitors in urgent scientific questions to be addressed.

Potential interactions are revealed by continuously analysing the expression of immune checkpoint molecules on tumour cells, epithelial and stromal cells, immune cell population and corresponding ligands in the immune microenvironment. Based on clarifying the above changes and combining them with biological information such as clinical stage and prognosis, we try to elucidate the main cell subsets responding to immune checkpoint inhibitors in different gastrointestinal diseases. In addition, by analysing the immune microenvironment of patients who do not respond to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, we can explore the main reasons for treatment ineffectiveness to further guide how to screen outpatients who do not respond to treatment and explore new combination therapy strategies for these patients in advance.

We welcome original research articles, Review articles, Mini Reviews, and Case reports. Topics include but are not limited to the following:
(1) Expression of different immune checkpoint molecules in various cell populations of gastrointestinal diseases and their biological significance
(2) Single-cell analysis of immune microenvironment changes before and after treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors
(3) Constructing the response prediction model of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy based on multidisciplinary methods such as big data and bioinformatics
(4) Clinical trials and clinical case reports of immune checkpoint inhibitor combination therapy

IMPORTANT NOTE: please submit Clinical Trial and Clinical Case Report to Frontiers in Oncology.

Keywords: Immune checkpoints, Inflammation, tumor, Gastrointestinal diseases

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.