Leveraging liquid biopsy to uncover resistance mechanisms and guide personalized immunotherapy

Cancer therapy has been revolutionized by immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) that create a new paradigm among cancer immunotherapies. These agents restore the immune system capacity to fight cancer through blocking the action of major immune checkpoint proteins that suppress immune responses such a...

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Main Authors: Zeinab Dalloul, Jana Grenel Briend, Mariama Diawara, Catherine Taylor, Rodney J. Ouellette
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-09-01
Series:Translational Oncology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1936523325001767
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author Zeinab Dalloul
Jana Grenel Briend
Mariama Diawara
Catherine Taylor
Rodney J. Ouellette
author_facet Zeinab Dalloul
Jana Grenel Briend
Mariama Diawara
Catherine Taylor
Rodney J. Ouellette
author_sort Zeinab Dalloul
collection DOAJ
description Cancer therapy has been revolutionized by immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) that create a new paradigm among cancer immunotherapies. These agents restore the immune system capacity to fight cancer through blocking the action of major immune checkpoint proteins that suppress immune responses such as programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4), which tumors exploit for immune escape. Another advancement is the absence of known biomarkers involves ICIs, which can further be translated into new liquid tests like liquid biopsies, indicating the immune status of the patient. Liquid biopsy is a minimally invasive method for identifying tumor-derived components such as circulating tumor cells, cell-free DNA and extracellular vesicles (EVs) from body fluids for analysis. Researchers increasingly use liquid biopsy for biomarkers discovery and patient stratification into clinical applications. Even though immunotherapy has great advances, still there are obstacles faced while using ICIs. Many patients fail to respond to the treatment because of the heterogeneous mechanisms of resistance. Immunotherapy resistance is a dynamic interplay between tumors and their surrounding stroma. To understand this variability, humanized mice models are increasingly used for mirroring human immune responses. Such models offer insight into cancer immunotherapy when human immune system is engrafted into mice, and EV and biomarker profiles are established in those models. EVs reflect differences in tumor characteristics and the immune landscape around tumors to develop personalized strategies to enhance ICI efficacy. This may improve patient prognosis, giving reason to hope for better, more effective treatments.
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spelling doaj-art-45a958b5ba64437fa5ddcbad8c5bbd6b2025-08-20T03:27:02ZengElsevierTranslational Oncology1936-52332025-09-015910244510.1016/j.tranon.2025.102445Leveraging liquid biopsy to uncover resistance mechanisms and guide personalized immunotherapyZeinab Dalloul0Jana Grenel Briend1Mariama Diawara2Catherine Taylor3Rodney J. Ouellette4Atlantic Cancer Research Institute, Moncton, New Brunswick, CanadaAtlantic Cancer Research Institute, Moncton, New Brunswick, CanadaAtlantic Cancer Research Institute, Moncton, New Brunswick, CanadaAtlantic Cancer Research Institute, Moncton, New Brunswick, CanadaAtlantic Cancer Research Institute, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Université de Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada; Dr Georges L. Dumont University Hospital, Vitalite Health Network, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada; Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Corresponding author.Cancer therapy has been revolutionized by immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) that create a new paradigm among cancer immunotherapies. These agents restore the immune system capacity to fight cancer through blocking the action of major immune checkpoint proteins that suppress immune responses such as programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4), which tumors exploit for immune escape. Another advancement is the absence of known biomarkers involves ICIs, which can further be translated into new liquid tests like liquid biopsies, indicating the immune status of the patient. Liquid biopsy is a minimally invasive method for identifying tumor-derived components such as circulating tumor cells, cell-free DNA and extracellular vesicles (EVs) from body fluids for analysis. Researchers increasingly use liquid biopsy for biomarkers discovery and patient stratification into clinical applications. Even though immunotherapy has great advances, still there are obstacles faced while using ICIs. Many patients fail to respond to the treatment because of the heterogeneous mechanisms of resistance. Immunotherapy resistance is a dynamic interplay between tumors and their surrounding stroma. To understand this variability, humanized mice models are increasingly used for mirroring human immune responses. Such models offer insight into cancer immunotherapy when human immune system is engrafted into mice, and EV and biomarker profiles are established in those models. EVs reflect differences in tumor characteristics and the immune landscape around tumors to develop personalized strategies to enhance ICI efficacy. This may improve patient prognosis, giving reason to hope for better, more effective treatments.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1936523325001767Liquid biopsyImmunotherapyImmune checkpoint inhibitorsExtracellular vesiclesBiomarkersResistance
spellingShingle Zeinab Dalloul
Jana Grenel Briend
Mariama Diawara
Catherine Taylor
Rodney J. Ouellette
Leveraging liquid biopsy to uncover resistance mechanisms and guide personalized immunotherapy
Translational Oncology
Liquid biopsy
Immunotherapy
Immune checkpoint inhibitors
Extracellular vesicles
Biomarkers
Resistance
title Leveraging liquid biopsy to uncover resistance mechanisms and guide personalized immunotherapy
title_full Leveraging liquid biopsy to uncover resistance mechanisms and guide personalized immunotherapy
title_fullStr Leveraging liquid biopsy to uncover resistance mechanisms and guide personalized immunotherapy
title_full_unstemmed Leveraging liquid biopsy to uncover resistance mechanisms and guide personalized immunotherapy
title_short Leveraging liquid biopsy to uncover resistance mechanisms and guide personalized immunotherapy
title_sort leveraging liquid biopsy to uncover resistance mechanisms and guide personalized immunotherapy
topic Liquid biopsy
Immunotherapy
Immune checkpoint inhibitors
Extracellular vesicles
Biomarkers
Resistance
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1936523325001767
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AT catherinetaylor leveragingliquidbiopsytouncoverresistancemechanismsandguidepersonalizedimmunotherapy
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