{"title":"Clinical research progress of telomerase targeted cancer immunotherapy: a literature review.","authors":"Yu Wang, Xiaoying Zhang, Guangming Chen, Mingzhe Shao","doi":"10.21037/tcr-24-196","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and objective: </strong>Telomerase is activated or overexpressed in 85-90% of tumors, which maintains the length of telomere and has become an important anti-cancer target. Increasing clinical and preclinical data suggest that telomerase-targeted cancer immunotherapy could achieve effective killing of tumor cells <i>in vivo</i>. This article reviews the research progress of telomerase targeted cancer immunotherapy in clinical and pre-clinical trials, aiming to provide a reference for further clinical research and treatment of cancers.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We investigated the research progress of telomerase immunotherapy in the last 20 years from four electronic databases.</p><p><strong>Key content and findings: </strong>Telomerase-targeted immunotherapies have been developed with the arising of a new era in immuno-oncology, including peptide vaccines, DNA vaccines, dendritic cells (DCs), adoptive cell transfer (ACT) therapies, antibodies, etc. Some of them have been approved for undergoing clinical trials by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of various cancers, such as pancreatic cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma, leukaemia. Of all the treatment modalities, vaccines are the primary treatment methods, some of which have been even entered into phase III clinical trials. The main clinical application direction of telomerase vaccine is the combination with other drugs and treatment modalities, including combination with other vaccines targeting human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), traditional chemotherapy drugs and immunosuppressors. We also summarized the recent findings of immunotherapy targeting hTERT, focusing on various vaccines and the current status of associated clinical trials. We further discussed the advantages, disadvantages and potential developmental directions of various telomerase-targeted immunotherapies.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Telomerase-targeted cancer immunotherapy has promising prospects in improving patient survival expectancy. This review may provide data support and design ideas for all researchers and pharmaceutical enterprises in this field.</p>","PeriodicalId":23216,"journal":{"name":"Translational cancer research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11319969/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Translational cancer research","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.21037/tcr-24-196","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/7/17 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"ONCOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background and objective: Telomerase is activated or overexpressed in 85-90% of tumors, which maintains the length of telomere and has become an important anti-cancer target. Increasing clinical and preclinical data suggest that telomerase-targeted cancer immunotherapy could achieve effective killing of tumor cells in vivo. This article reviews the research progress of telomerase targeted cancer immunotherapy in clinical and pre-clinical trials, aiming to provide a reference for further clinical research and treatment of cancers.
Methods: We investigated the research progress of telomerase immunotherapy in the last 20 years from four electronic databases.
Key content and findings: Telomerase-targeted immunotherapies have been developed with the arising of a new era in immuno-oncology, including peptide vaccines, DNA vaccines, dendritic cells (DCs), adoptive cell transfer (ACT) therapies, antibodies, etc. Some of them have been approved for undergoing clinical trials by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of various cancers, such as pancreatic cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma, leukaemia. Of all the treatment modalities, vaccines are the primary treatment methods, some of which have been even entered into phase III clinical trials. The main clinical application direction of telomerase vaccine is the combination with other drugs and treatment modalities, including combination with other vaccines targeting human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), traditional chemotherapy drugs and immunosuppressors. We also summarized the recent findings of immunotherapy targeting hTERT, focusing on various vaccines and the current status of associated clinical trials. We further discussed the advantages, disadvantages and potential developmental directions of various telomerase-targeted immunotherapies.
Conclusions: Telomerase-targeted cancer immunotherapy has promising prospects in improving patient survival expectancy. This review may provide data support and design ideas for all researchers and pharmaceutical enterprises in this field.
背景和目的:端粒酶在85%-90%的肿瘤中被激活或过度表达,它能维持端粒的长度,已成为重要的抗癌靶点。越来越多的临床和临床前数据表明,以端粒酶为靶点的癌症免疫疗法可以在体内有效杀伤肿瘤细胞。本文回顾了端粒酶靶向癌症免疫疗法在临床和临床前试验中的研究进展,旨在为进一步的临床研究和癌症治疗提供参考:我们从四个电子数据库中调查了近20年来端粒酶免疫疗法的研究进展:随着免疫肿瘤学新时代的到来,端粒酶靶向免疫疗法应运而生,包括多肽疫苗、DNA疫苗、树突状细胞(DCs)、采纳性细胞转移(ACT)疗法、抗体等。其中一些疗法已获得美国食品药品管理局(FDA)批准,正在进行临床试验,用于治疗各种癌症,如胰腺癌、非小细胞肺癌、黑色素瘤、白血病等。在所有治疗方式中,疫苗是最主要的治疗方法,其中一些甚至已进入 III 期临床试验。端粒酶疫苗的主要临床应用方向是与其他药物和治疗方式的联合应用,包括与其他靶向人端粒酶逆转录酶(hTERT)的疫苗、传统化疗药物和免疫抑制剂的联合应用。我们还总结了针对 hTERT 的免疫疗法的最新研究成果,重点介绍了各种疫苗和相关临床试验的现状。我们进一步讨论了各种端粒酶靶向免疫疗法的优缺点和潜在发展方向:端粒酶靶向癌症免疫疗法在提高患者预期生存率方面前景广阔。本综述可为该领域的所有研究人员和制药企业提供数据支持和设计思路。
期刊介绍:
Translational Cancer Research (Transl Cancer Res TCR; Print ISSN: 2218-676X; Online ISSN 2219-6803; http://tcr.amegroups.com/) is an Open Access, peer-reviewed journal, indexed in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE). TCR publishes laboratory studies of novel therapeutic interventions as well as clinical trials which evaluate new treatment paradigms for cancer; results of novel research investigations which bridge the laboratory and clinical settings including risk assessment, cellular and molecular characterization, prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment of human cancers with the overall goal of improving the clinical care of cancer patients. The focus of TCR is original, peer-reviewed, science-based research that successfully advances clinical medicine toward the goal of improving patients'' quality of life. The editors and an international advisory group of scientists and clinician-scientists as well as other experts will hold TCR articles to the high-quality standards. We accept Original Articles as well as Review Articles, Editorials and Brief Articles.