Cancer immunotherapy, especially immune checkpoint blockade therapy, represents a hotspot in cancer research. However, the low response rate, adaptive/acquired resistance, and adverse effects still keep most cancer patients from obtaining sustained clinical benefits. To overcome these limitations, it is essential to improve our understanding on the regulation of immune checkpoints under physiological and pathological contexts. Recent researches have gained insights into the molecular control of immune checkpoint receptors and ligands, which extended our knowledge on the immune system and provided alternative strategies for developing checkpoint inhibitors.
Keywords: Antibody; Biomarkers; Cancer immunotherapy; Gene regulation; Immune checkpoint.