Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors and Immunosuppressive Tumor Microenvironment: Current Challenges and Strategies to Overcome Resistance.

Abstract

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are shown to improve cancer treatment effectiveness by boosting the immune system of the patient. Nevertheless, the unique and highly suppressive TME poses a significant challenge, causing heterogeneity of response or resistance in a considerable number of patients. This review focuses on the evasive attributes of the TME. Immune evasion mechanism in TME include immunosuppressive cells, cytokine and chemokine signaling, metabolic alterations and overexpression of immune checkpoint molecules such as PD-1, CTLA-4, LAG-3, TIM-3, TIGIT, BTLA and their interactions within the TME. In addition, this review focuses on the overcoming resistance by targeting immunosuppressive cells, normalizing tumor blood vessels, blocking two or three checkpoints simultaneously, combining vaccines, oncolytic viruses and metabolic inhibitors with ICIs or other therapies. This review also focuses on the necessity of finding predictive markers for the stratification of patients and to check response of ICIs treatment. It remains to be made certain by new research and intelligent innovations how these discoveries of the TME and its interplay facilitate ICI treatment and change the face of cancer treatment.