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Gut checkpoint: A rising cancer treatment may get a boost from intestinal bacteria

Nature Medicine volume 24, pages 251–253 (2018)Cite this article

Gajewski seized on the possibility that the thousands of microbial species that live in the intestine—known collectively as the gut microbiota—were influencing the immune system's reaction to a tumor. He was already taking part in clinical trials with an emerging class of cancer drugs, called immune checkpoint inhibitors, which were delivering exceptionally good results. The approach uses antibodies that bind to molecules on T cells that would normally quell their activity and ability to divide to boost T cell number and activity against tumors.

The first checkpoint blockade inhibitor to receive approval targeted advanced melanoma, getting the green light from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2011. These types of inhibitors are now approved for multiple tumor types, including lung, kidney and bladder cancers. The drugs typically target either a protein on the surface of T cells known as programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) or its binding partner, PD-L1, which is found on immune cells and on some tumor cells. Under normal circumstances, the binding of PD-1 and PD-L1 allow T cells to quiet down once they've helped fight off an infection in the body, but cancer cells can hijack this tempering system to reduce the activity of T cells in fighting tumors.

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  1. Anna Azvolinsky is a freelance science journalist based in New York City.

    • Anna Azvolinsky
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  1. Anna Azvolinsky
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Azvolinsky, A. Gut checkpoint: A rising cancer treatment may get a boost from intestinal bacteria. Nat Med 24, 251–253 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0318-251

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