Copyright
©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Cancer immunotherapy by targeting immune checkpoint receptors
Noah Isakov, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Genetics, Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel
Author contributions: Isakov N performed all activities for preparation of this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author to: Noah Isakov, PhD, Professor, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Genetics, Ben-Gurion University, POB. 653, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel. noah@bgu.ac.il
Telephone: +972-8-6477267 Fax: +972-8-6477626
Received: August 30, 2018
Peer-review started: August 30, 2018
First decision: October 22, 2018
Revised: November 10, 2018
Accepted: November 29, 2018
Article in press: November 29, 2018
Published online: December 21, 2018
Processing time: 113 Days and 16.7 Hours
Peer-review started: August 30, 2018
First decision: October 22, 2018
Revised: November 10, 2018
Accepted: November 29, 2018
Article in press: November 29, 2018
Published online: December 21, 2018
Processing time: 113 Days and 16.7 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: The major functions of immune checkpoint receptors are to maintain self-tolerance, prevent immunopathology, and regulate overall immune homeostasis. However, skewed activation of these receptors by cancer cells may lead to suppression of nascent anti-tumor immunity and promote tumor cell growth. Clinical studies have demonstrated that blocking inhibitory immune checkpoint receptors induced durable clinical responses and unprecedented therapeutic benefits in multiple types of malignancies. The present editorial addresses some of the major immune checkpoint receptor targets in cancer immunotherapy, discusses some of the side effects and limitations in their utilization, and highlights some of the future challenges in the field.