Immune therapy of melanoma: Overview of therapeutic vaccines

Abstract

Melanoma is the most serious type of skin cancer which develops from the occurrence of genetic mutations in the melanocytes. Based on the features of melanoma tumors such as location, genetic profile and stage, there are several therapeutic strategies including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. However, because of the appearance resistance mechanisms, the efficiency of these treatments strategies may be reduced. It has been demonstrated that therapeutic monoclonal antibodies can improve the efficiency of melanoma therapies. Recently, several mAbs, such as nivolumab, pembrolizumab, and ipilimumab, were approved for the immunotherapy of melanoma. The antibodies inhibit immune checkpoint receptors such as CTL4 and pd‐1. Another therapeutic strategy for the treatment of melanoma is cancer vaccines, which improve clinical outcomes in patients. The combination therapy using antibodies and gene vaccine give us a new perspective in the treatment of melanoma patients. Herein, we present the recent progressions in the melanoma immunotherapy, especially dendritic cells mRNA vaccines by reviewing recent literature.

Critical roles of long noncoding RNAs in breast cancer

“…It has been suggested that breast cancer cells have different pathologic characteristics, which enable them to react differently to different medications (C. I. Li, Uribe, & Daling, 2005). Studies have shown that harboring mutations in cell signaling pathways, such as transforming growth factor‐β (TGF‐β), Wnt/β‐catenin, phosphoinositide 3‐kinase/protein kinase (PI3K/AKT), nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB), and other signaling pathways gives cancer cells different characteristics and malignant potentials (Payandeh et al, 2019). Furthermore, different specimens of breast cancer have different gene expression profiles, and it has been suggested that having differences in master regulators of signaling pathways and gene translation could underlie this heterogeneity (Malhotra, Zhao, Band, & Band, 2011).…”

MicroRNAs in breast cancer: Roles, functions, and mechanism of actions

“…Arising evidence suggests that miRNAs are involved in various pathways. Studies exhibited various functions of specific miRNAs in different cancers as well as breast cancer (Hrdlickova, de Almeida, Borek, & Withoff, ; Mulrane, Klinger, McGee, Gallagher, & O'Connor, ; Payandeh et al, ). MiRNAs play different roles in diverse mechanisms and signaling pathways in breast cancer and repress protein (Tarhriz et al, ).…”

Impacto da via de sinalização AMPK na modulação da resposta imune antitumoral por linfócitos T CD4>sup<+>/sup< e CD8>sup<+>/sup<

“…Estudos recentes mostraram que baixos níveis de oxigênio (hipóxia) podem ser essenciais para a transformação dos melanócitos (16), e que a MEC, condicionada por células agressivas de melanoma, pode transformar epigeneticamente os melanócitos normais em direção a um fenótipo de melanoma mais invasivo (17). (27,28).…”

“…Atualmente, a imunoterapia ou o uso de anticorpos monoclonais tem sido utilizado para melhorar a eficácia destas terapias para o melanoma (27). Nesse contexto, uma estratégia terapêutica promissora que tem se destacado no tratamento do melanoma é o uso de anticorpos que bloqueiam receptores de checkpoints imunes como CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4) e PD-1 (programmed cell death 1) (27).…”

“…Atualmente, a imunoterapia ou o uso de anticorpos monoclonais tem sido utilizado para melhorar a eficácia destas terapias para o melanoma (27). Nesse contexto, uma estratégia terapêutica promissora que tem se destacado no tratamento do melanoma é o uso de anticorpos que bloqueiam receptores de checkpoints imunes como CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4) e PD-1 (programmed cell death 1) (27). Esses receptores atuam como reguladores da resposta imune, prevenindo a autoimunidade (27) além de funcionar como estímulos co-inibitórios e co-estimuladores para os linfócitos T, participando da ativação destas células, bem como da sua função efetora e liberação de citocinas (42).…”