Myeloid-derived suppressor cells as immunosuppressive regulators and therapeutic targets in cancer

By Kai Li, Houhui Shi, Benxia Zhang, X. Ou, Qizhi Ma, Yue Chen, P. Shu, Dan Li, Yongsheng Wang. Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, 2021

829 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are a heterogenic population of immature myeloid cells with immunosuppressive effects, which undergo massive expansion during tumor progression. These cells not only support immune escape directly but also promote tumor invasion via various non-immunological activities. Besides, this group of cells are proved to impair the efficiency of current antitumor strategies such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy. Therefore, MDSCs are considered as potential therapeutic targets for cancer therapy. Treatment strategies targeting MDSCs have shown promising outcomes in both preclinical studies and clinical trials when administrated alone, or in combination with other anticancer therapies. In this review, we shed new light on recent advances in the biological characteristics and immunosuppressive functions of MDSCs. We also hope to propose an overview of current MDSCs-targeting therapies so as to provide new ideas for cancer treatment.

Subfields: Immunology, Neurology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2843ed25089391a42a696505caa71bac6d3e4f1a

Citations in the corpus

• Unraveling the Role of Tumor-Infiltrating Immune Cells in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Implications for Antitumor Immune Responses and Immunotherapy (2025, unknown): “…by not only increasing the expression of inhibitory immune checkpoint molecules expression, such as PD-L1, and depleting amino acids essentials for T cell function, but also producing adenosines, reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen species (RNS) and impairing T-cell trafficking to tumors [31,32].”