Affiliations: [a] College of Life Sciences and Medicine, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China | [b] Department of Pathology, Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Correspondence:
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Corresponding authors: Yigang Wang, College of Life Sciences and Medicine, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310018, China. %****␣cbm-32-cbm210114_temp.tex␣Line␣25␣**** E-mail: ygwang@zstu.edu.cn. Fang Huang, Department of Pathology, Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital, 158 Shangtang Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310014, China. E-mail: huangfang0794@163.com.
Abstract: Over the past decade, cancer immunotherapy, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICRs), has attained considerable progresses in clinical practice. T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing protein 3 (Tim-3) act as next ICRs, and originally function as a co-inhibitory receptor expressed on interferon (IFN)-γ producing CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells. Furthermore, Tim-3 has also been found to express on innate immune cells and several types of tumors, signifying the pivotal role that Tim-3 plays in chronic viral infections and cancer. In addition, Tim-3 and multiple ICRs are concurrently expressed and regulated on dysfunctional or exhausted T-cells, leading to improved antitumor immune responses in preclinical or clinical cancer therapy through co-blockade of Tim-3 and other ICRs such as programmed cell death-1 (PD-1). In this review, the biological characteristics of Tim-3 and the function of Tim-3 in regulating tumorigenesis and inflammation have been summarized. The usage of a single blockade of Tim-3 or in combination with multiple immunotherapy regimens have drawn attention to antitumor potential as a target for immunotherapy.
Keywords: Immune checkpoint receptor, Tim-3, cancer immunotherapy, tumorigenesis, immune blockade
