Far Beyond Cancer Immunotherapy: Reversion of Multi-Malignant Phenotypes of Immunotherapeutic-Resistant Cancer by Targeting the NANOG Signaling Axis

• Published in: Immune network 2020, 20(1), , pp.1-11
• Main Authors: Oh, Se Jin, Lee, Jaeyoon, Kim, Yukang, Song, Kwon-Ho, Cho, Eunho, Kim, Minsung, Jung, Heejae, Kim, Tae Woo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Review; 면역학
• ISSN: 1598-2629; 2092-6685
• DOI: 10.4110/in.2020.20.e7

Cancer immunotherapy, in the form of vaccination, adoptive cellular transfer, or immune checkpoint inhibitors, has emerged as a promising practice within the field of oncology. However, despite the developing field's potential to revolutionize cancer treatment, the presence of immunotherapeutic-resistant tumor cells in many patients present a challenge and limitation to these immunotherapies. These cells not only indicate immunotherapeutic resistance, but also show multi-modal resistance to conventional therapies, abnormal metabolism, stemness, and metastasis. How can immunotherapeutic-resistant tumor cells render multi-malignant phenotypes? We reasoned that the immune-refractory phenotype could be associated with multi-malignant phenotypes and that these phenotypes are linked together by a factor that acts as the master regulator. In this review, we discussed the role of the embryonic transcription factor NANOG as a crucial master regulator we named "common factor" in multi-malignant phenotypes and presented strategies to overcome multi-malignancy in immunotherapeutic-resistant cancer by restraining the NANOG-mediated multi-malignant signaling axis. Strategies that blunt the NANOG axis could improve the clinical management of therapy-refractory cancer.