Potential role of gut microbes in the efficacy and toxicity of immune checkpoints inhibitors

Jingxin Ma; Qi Wei; Xin Cheng; Jie Zhang; Zhongtao Zhang; Jianrong Su

doi:10.3389/fphar.2023.1170591

Potential role of gut microbes in the efficacy and toxicity of immune checkpoints inhibitors

Front Pharmacol. 2023 Jun 21:14:1170591. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1170591. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jingxin Ma¹, Qi Wei², Xin Cheng¹, Jie Zhang³, Zhongtao Zhang², Jianrong Su¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Laboratory, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
² Department of General Surgery, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Clinical Research Center of Digestive Diseases, Beijing, China.
³ Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

In recent years, Immune checkpoint inhibitors have been extensively used in the treatment of a variety of cancers. However, the response rates ranging from 13% to 69% depending on the tumor type and the emergence of immune-related adverse events have posed significant challenges for clinical treatment. As a key environmental factor, gut microbes have a variety of important physiological functions such as regulating intestinal nutrient metabolism, promoting intestinal mucosal renewal, and maintaining intestinal mucosal immune activity. A growing number of studies have revealed that gut microbes further influence the anticancer effects of tumor patients through modulation of the efficacy and toxicity of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Currently, faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) have been developed relatively mature and suggested as an important regulator in order to enhance the efficacy of treatment. This review is dedicated to exploring the impact of differences in flora composition on the efficacy and toxicity of immune checkpoint inhibitors as well as to summarizing the current progress of FMT.

Keywords: efficacy; faecal microbiota transplantation; gut microbes; immune checkpoint inhibitors; immune-related adverse events; toxicity.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Key Technologies R&D Program (No. 2015BAI13B09); National Key Technologies R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFC0110904); Beijing Municipal Administration of Hospitals Clinical Medicine Development of Special Funding (No. ZYLX201504); Clinical Center for Colorectal Cancer, Capital Medical University (No. 1192070313); and Research Foundation of Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University (No. YYQDKT 2016-5).