Research progress of interleukin-15 in cancer immunotherapy

Menghan Cai; Xuan Huang; Xiting Huang; Dianwen Ju; Yi Zhun Zhu; Li Ye

doi:10.3389/fphar.2023.1184703

Research progress of interleukin-15 in cancer immunotherapy

Front Pharmacol. 2023 May 12:14:1184703. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1184703. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Menghan Cai¹, Xuan Huang^{2

3}, Xiting Huang^{2

3}, Dianwen Ju^{2

3}, Yi Zhun Zhu¹, Li Ye^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Pharmacy and State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, Macau SAR, China.
² Minhang Hospital and Department of Biological Medicines at School of Pharmacy, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
³ Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Immunotherapeutics, School of Pharmacy, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is a cytokine that belongs to the interleukin-2 (IL-2) family and is essential for the development, proliferation, and activation of immune cells, including natural killer (NK) cells, T cells and B cells. Recent studies have revealed that interleukin-15 also plays a critical role in cancer immunotherapy. Interleukin-15 agonist molecules have shown that interleukin-15 agonists are effective in inhibiting tumor growth and preventing metastasis, and some are undergoing clinical trials. In this review, we will summarize the recent progress in interleukin-15 research over the past 5 years, highlighting its potential applications in cancer immunotherapy and the progress of interleukin-15 agonist development.

Keywords: cancer; cancer immunotherapy; cytokines; interleukin-15 agonist; recombinant fusion proteins.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Macau Science and Technology Development fund (FDCT 0148/2022/A3), the Faculty Research Grants of Macau University of Science and Technology (No. FRG-22-090-SP), and the Scientific and Innovative Action Plan of Shanghai (Nos 20S11901600 and 18431902800).