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Intratumoral anti-CTLA-4 could reduce severe AEs: Results from a phase 1b clinical trial

The combination of nivolumab (anti-PD-1) and ipilimumab (anti-CTLA-4), both administered intravenously, has been approved for the treatment of cancer in a variety of settings since 2015, but its use is frequently hindered by severe adverse events...

mRNA vaccine immunity is enhanced by hepatocyte detargeting and not dependent on dendritic cell expression

To study how cell type-specific expression on mRNA-encoded proteins influences immunity, Marks and Siu et al. incorporated synthetic microRNA target sites into the mRNA. LNP-delivered mRNA did not nee...

Dendritic cell redundancy enables priming of anti-tumor CD4+ T cells in pancreatic cancer

Kureshi et al. showed that localized STING agonist combined with anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 induced durable tumor remission and memory in poorly immunogenic subcutaneous and orthotopic PDAC models, inc...

Cancer stem cells orchestrate immune evasion through extracellular vesicle-mediated non-canonical signaling pathways

Fan et al. found that in patient specimens of untreated TNBC, cancer stem cells produced extracellular vesicles enriched for TSPAN8 (EVs-TSPAN8), which interacted with CD103 on T cells via a paracrine...

Foxp3 drives context-dependent epigenetic programs that define regulatory T cell molecular identity and function

Wei et al. used Foxp3-transduced conventional T cells as a gain-of-function probe, and identified an endogenous Foxp3+ subset that acquired Treg-like transcriptional, chromatin, and suppressive featur...

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NK cells unleashed by Treg ablation

May 6, 2026

When tumors lose expression of MHC-I under the selective pressure of CD8+ T cells, NK cells may step in and take on a more prominent antitumor role, but often this is still insufficient to control tumors. Investigating potential mechanisms...

No cDC1, no worries: cDC2 and cross-dressing prime T cells in response to mRNA-LNP vaccination

April 29, 2026

cDC1s play essential roles in CD8+ T cell priming in response to protein- and DNA-based vaccination. However, whether mRNA vaccines function via a similar mechanism remains unknown. In a recent Nature publication, Jo et al. uncovered the mechanisms of...

Agonist anti-CD40 converts Tregs from foes to friends

April 22, 2026

Recent investigations into the use of agonist anti-CD40 for cancer immunotherapy have shown that this treatment not only enhances APC functions, but also reduces regulatory T cells (Tregs) within the tumor microenvironment (TME), despite a lack of CD40 on...

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