
TLR and STING Agonists: A New Venture in Cancer Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy includes a number of strategies that harness the immune system to help treat disease. Immunotherapy for cancer, as we know it, now relies on the activation of specific immune system cells known as T cells. Cancer drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors act by removing the brakes imposed on T cells by tumors or by the body’s natural mechanisms for limiting their activation to prevent autoimmune disease.
In recent years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved several immune checkpoint drugs for the treatment of various cancers. These drugs target proteins involved in activating the T cell response: PD-1, PD-L1, and CTLA4. Many clinical trials are testing drugs that target other immune checkpoint proteins (OX40, B7-H3, and LAG3, to name just a few), but no notable successes have been reported so far.
Now, some clinical investigators have turned their attention to a different arm of the immune system that could help treat cancer. Continue reading…