Combined Use of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors and Phytochemicals as a Novel Therapeutic Strategy against Cancer

LingJie Luo; Caiji Lin; Pengfei Wang; Danli Cao; Yiru Lin; Wenxue Wang; Yufan Zhao; Yongwei Shi; Zixiang Gao; Xin Kang; Yuanyuan Zhang; Shuang Wang; Jiaxing Wang; Mengzhi Xu; Huidi Liu; Shu-Lin Liu

doi:10.7150/jca.85966

Combined Use of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors and Phytochemicals as a Novel Therapeutic Strategy against Cancer

J Cancer. 2023 Jul 24;14(12):2315-2328. doi: 10.7150/jca.85966. eCollection 2023.

Authors

LingJie Luo^{1

2

3}, Caiji Lin^{1

2

3}, Pengfei Wang^{1

2

3

4}, Danli Cao^{1

2

3}, Yiru Lin^{1

2

3}, Wenxue Wang^{1

2

3}, Yufan Zhao^{1

2

3}, Yongwei Shi^{1

2

3}, Zixiang Gao^{1

2

3}, Xin Kang^{1

2

3}, Yuanyuan Zhang^{1

2

3}, Shuang Wang^{1

2

3}, Jiaxing Wang^{1

2

3}, Mengzhi Xu^{1

2

3}, Huidi Liu^{1

2

3

5}, Shu-Lin Liu^{1

2

3

6}

Affiliations

¹ Genomics Research Center (Key Laboratory of Gut Microbiota and Pharmacogenomics of Heilongjiang Province, State-Province Key Laboratory of Biomedicine-Pharmaceutics of China), College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150081, China.
² National Key Laboratory of Frigid Zone Cardiovascular Diseases (NKLFZCD) College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150081, China.
³ Harbin Medical University-University of Calgary Cumming School of Medicine Centre for Infection and Genomics, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150081, China.
⁴ Division of Anti-Tumor Pharmacology, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201203, China.
⁵ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Calgary, Calgary, T2N 4N1, Canada.
⁶ Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, Calgary, T2N 4N1, Canada.

Abstract

Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy has dramatically changed cancer treatment, opening novel opportunities to cure malignant diseases. To date, most prevalently targeted immune checkpoints are programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4), with many others being under extensive investigations. However, according to available data, only a fraction of patients may respond to ICI therapy. Additionally, this therapy may cause severe adverse immune-related side effects, such as diarrhea, headache, muscle weakness, rash, hepatitis and leucopenia, although most of them are not fatal, they can affect the patient's treatment outcome and quality of life. On the other hand, growing evidence has shown that phytochemicals with anticancer effects may combine ICI therapy to augment the safety and effectiveness of the treatment against cancer while reducing the adverse side effects. In this review, we summarize the state of art in the various experiments and clinical application of ICIs plus phytochemicals, with a focus on their combined use as a novel therapeutic strategy to cure cancer.

Keywords: Combination therapy; Gut microbiota; Immune checkpoint inhibitor; Immune-related adverse events; Phytochemicals; Predictive biomarker.

Publication types

Review