The Mechanisms of CD8+ T Cells Exhaustion in the Tumor Microenvironment and Immune Therapy ()
ABSTRACT
In the tumor immune microenvironment, CD8+ T cells
differentiate towards functional failure. The exhaustion of CD8+ T
cells (Tex) showed varying degrees of effect dysfunction, loss of proliferation
ability, and sustained high expression of a variety of inhibitory receptors,
with metabolic and epigenetic changes. Tex cells are heterogeneous, including
several subsets with different characteristics at different stages of
differentiation. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) can restore the effect or
function of Tex cells, indicating that this T cell subset plays a key role in
tumor immunotherapy. The understanding of the mechanism of CD8+ T
cell exhaustion will be helpful to the implementation of tumor immunotherapy.
This article reviews the production, differentiation and functional
characteristics of Tex cells and their relationship with tumor immunotherapy.
Share and Cite:
An, H. , Song, S. and Huang, J. (2023) The Mechanisms of CD8
+ T Cells Exhaustion in the Tumor Microenvironment and Immune Therapy.
Journal of Cancer Therapy,
14, 161-169. doi:
10.4236/jct.2023.144015.