Innate immune cells for immunotherapy of autoimmune and cancer disorders

ABSTRACT

Modulation of the immune system has been widely targeted for the treatment of several immune-related diseases, such as autoimmune disorders and cancer, due to its crucial role in these pathologies. Current available therapies focus mainly on symptomatic treatment and are often associated with undesirable secondary effects. For several years, remission of disease and subsequently recovery of immune homeostasis has been a major goal for immunotherapy. Most current immunotherapeutic strategies are aimed to inhibit or potentiate directly the adaptive immune response by modulating antibody production and B cell memory, as well as the effector potential and memory of T cells. Although these immunomodulatory approaches have shown some success in the clinic with promising therapeutic potential, they have some limitations related to their effectiveness in disease models and clinical trials, as well as elevated costs. In the recent years, a renewed interest has emerged on targeting innate immune cells for immunotherapy, due to their high plasticity and ability to exert a potent and extremely rapid response, which can influence the outcome of the adaptive immune response. In this review, we discuss the immunomodulatory potential of several innate immune cells, as well as they use for immunotherapy, especially in autoimmunity and cancer.

KEYWORDS:

• Innate immunity
• NKT cells
• dendritic cells
• cancer
• autoimmunity

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Millennium Institute on Immunology and Immunotherapy (no. P09/016-F) (to LJC, PAG, SMB, CAR, ML and AMK); FONDECYT grants No. 1160336 (to LJC), 1140011 (to PAG), 1161525 (to CAR), 1170964 (to SMB), 11110456 (to CHR), 1150862 (to AMK), 1150173 (to AMK); Proyecto de Enlace VID ENL012/15 (to CHR); Nucleo Unab: DI-741-15/N (to CAR); and grants CRP-ICGEB CRP/CHI14-01 and COPEC-UC J-139 (to PAG). AB thanks to estrategia de sostenibilidad Universidad de Antioquia. LJC is a Pew Latin American Fellow.

Conflict of interest

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