Patients respond much better to immunotherapies based on checkpoint inhibitors when receptor protein RIG-I is active in cancer cells. This was shown lately by a team surrounding PD Simon Heidegger (right) and PD Hendrik Poeck (left). Image: Andreas Heddergott / TUM
The aim of immunotherapies is to enable the immune system once again to fight cancer on its own. Drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors are already in clinical use for this purpose. However, they are only effective in about one third of patients. Based on analysis of human tissue samples, a team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now discovered one reason why this is so: an inactive receptor in cancer cells prevents the drugs from reactivating the immune system.
An overactive immune system can be nearly as dangerous as an inactive one, triggering inflammation that attacks the body’s own tissues. To counter this, the immune system has what are known as checkpoint molecules, which, when switched on, act like a brake on the immune system. ...
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