Screening responsive or resistant biomarkers of immune checkpoint inhibitors based on online databases

Abstract

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a promising strategy in the treatment of cancer, especially advanced types. However, not all patients are responsive to immune checkpoint inhibitors. The response rate depends on the immune microenvironment, tumor mutational burden (TMB), expression level of immune checkpoint proteins, and molecular subtypes of cancers. Along with the Cancer Genome Project, various open access databases, including The Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus, provide large volumes of data, which allow researchers to explore responsive or resistant biomarkers of immune checkpoint inhibitors. In this review, we introduced some methodologies on database selection, biomarker screening, current progress of immune checkpoint blockade in solid tumor treatment, possible mechanisms of drug resistance, strategies of overcoming resistance, and indications for immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

Keywords

immune checkpoint blockade / sensitivity / resistance / data mining

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Nos. 2016YFC1303200 and 2017YFC0908300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81772505 and 81372644), the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee (No. 18411953100), the Cross-Institute Research Fund of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Nos. YG2017ZD01 and YG2015MS62), the Innovation Foundation of Translational Medicine of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (Nos. 15ZH4001, TM201617, and TM201702), and the Technology Transfer Project of the Science and Technology Department of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Zhen Xiang and Yingyan Yu declare no conflicts of interest. This article does not involve a research protocol requiring approval by a relevant institutional review board or ethics committee.

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