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Cancer Immune Evasion Through Loss of MHC Class I Antigen Presentation

Dhatchinamoorthy, Karthik
Colbert, Jeff D.
Rock, Kenneth L.
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Abstract

Major histocompatibility class I (MHC I) molecules bind peptides derived from a cell's expressed genes and then transport and display this antigenic information on the cell surface. This allows CD8 T cells to identify pathological cells that are synthesizing abnormal proteins, such as cancers that are expressing mutated proteins. In order for many cancers to arise and progress, they need to evolve mechanisms to avoid elimination by CD8 T cells. MHC I molecules are not essential for cell survival and therefore one mechanism by which cancers can evade immune control is by losing MHC I antigen presentation machinery (APM). Not only will this impair the ability of natural immune responses to control cancers, but also frustrate immunotherapies that work by re-invigorating anti-tumor CD8 T cells, such as checkpoint blockade. Here we review the evidence that loss of MHC I antigen presentation is a frequent occurrence in many cancers. We discuss new insights into some common underlying mechanisms through which some cancers inactivate the MHC I pathway and consider some possible strategies to overcome this limitation in ways that could restore immune control of tumors and improve immunotherapy.

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Dhatchinamoorthy K, Colbert JD, Rock KL. Cancer Immune Evasion Through Loss of MHC Class I Antigen Presentation. Front Immunol. 2021 Mar 9;12:636568. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.636568. PMID: 33767702; PMCID: PMC7986854. Link to article on publisher's site

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10.3389/fimmu.2021.636568
PubMed ID
33767702
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Copyright © 2021 Dhatchinamoorthy, Colbert and Rock. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.