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Review
. 2021 May 22:2021:9912188.
doi: 10.1155/2021/9912188. eCollection 2021.

Toll-Like Receptor-Based Strategies for Cancer Immunotherapy

Affiliations
Review

Toll-Like Receptor-Based Strategies for Cancer Immunotherapy

Saghar Pahlavanneshan et al. J Immunol Res. .

Abstract

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are expressed and play multiple functional roles in a variety of immune cell types involved in tumor immunity. There are plenty of data on the pharmacological targeting of TLR signaling using agonist molecules that boost the antitumor immune response. A recent body of research has also demonstrated promising strategies for improving the cell-based immunotherapy methods by inducing TLR signaling. These strategies include systemic administration of TLR antagonist along with immune cell transfer and also genetic engineering of the immune cells using TLR signaling components to improve the function of genetically engineered immune cells such as chimeric antigen receptor-modified T cells. Here, we explore the current status of the cancer immunotherapy approaches based on manipulation of TLR signaling to provide a perspective of the underlying rationales and potential clinical applications. Altogether, reviewed publications suggest that TLRs make a potential target for the immunotherapy of cancer.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Targeting TLRs expressed on the immune cells in the tumor microenvironment with TLR agonists. Examples of TLR agonists are shown at the top. TLRs which are expressed in human cell surface or intracellular compartments are shown in the middle. The expression of each TLR on different immune cell types is indicated by color-coded lines. Some reported low-level expressions of TLRs with unknown functional status are ignored in this figure.
Figure 2
Figure 2
TLR-based strategies for improvement of CAR T cells. (a) Schematic presentation of wild-type T cell proteins from which signaling domains are derived to construct chimeric synthetic receptors. (b) Traditional second-generation CAR containing an scFV domain for antigen recognition on the extracellular portion and CD3ζ and costimulatory signaling domains on the cytosolic side (CD28 domain is shown here as an example). (c) A third-generation CAR with a TIR signaling domain derived from TLRs. (d) A CD40-MyD88 fusion protein tethered to a first-generation CAR through an inefficient 2A linker. (e) The CD40-MyD88 fusion is linked to a rimiducid-binding domain from an FKBP protein to form a pharmacological switch that can transmit a costimulatory signal by dimerization upon rimiducid treatment.

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