Life: why cancer immunocheckpoint treatment promotes tuberculosis infection

February 26, 2020 / bioun / - recently, researchers at the University of Southampton found that cancer checkpoint inhibitor therapy has the risk of tuberculosis in some patients Cancer immunotherapy is a new treatment method which can resist cancer by activating immune cells of human body Checkpoint is a negative regulatory factor expressed on the surface of human immune cells, which helps to inhibit the occurrence of harmful inflammatory reactions Checkpoint inhibitors are drugs used in immunotherapy, which can effectively attack cancer cells by reactivating immune cells Surprisingly, the use of checkpoint inhibitors for immunoactivation can sometimes lead to rapid development of tuberculosis Researchers from the University of Southampton School of medicine described the first cases of immunotherapy-related tuberculosis in the American Journal of respiratory and critical care medicine in December 2018, and then reports of similar cases began to accumulate gradually However, the progress of cancer is similar to that of tuberculosis, so the real incidence rate is not clear In order to understand the mechanism behind this phenomenon, Dr liku tezera, the project leader and senior researcher, used a 3D cell culture model to measure the impact of checkpoint inhibitors on the immune system's ability to control tuberculosis infection, and the relevant results were published in the recent "eLife" magazine The results show that the addition of anti-pd1, an immunosuppressant, can lead to excessive immune response and actually promote the growth of bacteria Partners at the African Institute of Health (AHRI) demonstrated that PD-1 is involved in the immune response of patients to tuberculosis infection "It's an important clinical phenomenon, and by understanding the processes that lead to TB, we can improve existing treatments that can be used to reduce infection and allow cancer treatment to continue," Dr Tereza said Source of information: Research identities how new cancer treatments can activate tuberculosis infection source: liku B tezera et al, anti-PD-1 immutably leads to tuberculosis activation via dysregulation of TNF - α, eLife (2020) Doi: 10.7554/elife.52668