Manipulation of Inflammasome: A Promising Approach Towards Immunotherapy of Lung Cancer

Abstract

Chronic inflammation has emerged as a key player at different stages of cancer development. A prominent signaling pathway for acute and chronic inflammation is the activation of the caspase-1 inflammasomes. These are complexes that assemble on activation of certain nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich repeat containing proteins (NLRs), AIM2-like receptors (ALRs), or pyrin due to activation via PAMPs or DAMPs. Of these, five complexes—NLRP1, NLRP3, NLRC4, Pyrin, and AIM2 are of importance in the context of cancer for their activities in modulating immune responses, cell proliferation, and apoptosis. Inflammasomes have emerged as clinically relevant in multiple forms of cancer making them highly promising targets for cancer therapy. As lungs are a tissue niche that is prone to inflammation owing to its exposure to external substances, inflammasomes play a vital role in the development and pathogenesis of lung cancer. Therefore, manipulation of inflammasome by various immunomodulatory means could prove a full-proof strategy for the treatment of lung cancer. Here, in this review, we tried to explore the various strategies to target the inflammasomes for the treatment of lung cancer.

Keywords:

• AIM2 inflammasome
• immunotherapy
• lung cancer
• NLRP3 inflammasome

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.