Marco Donia: Circadian rhythm, tumor infiltration of CD8+ T cells, and cancer immunotherapy

Marco Donia, Clinical Research Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen, shared on LinkedIn:

“Circadian rhythm, tumor infiltration of CD8+ T cells, and cancer immunotherapy.
(Free access, Cell Press, 8 May 2024)

Key Points:

• Rhythmic Infiltration: CD8+ T cells follow a daily infiltration pattern in mice, dictated by the circadian clock in endothelial cells.
•  Timing of therapy: In mice, administering T-cell therapy or immune checkpoint blockade (particularly for the first cycle) at specific times influence their efficacy.
•  Human studies: Evidence shows that time-of-day oscillations in immune cell infiltration also exist in human tumors.

Take home:

Challenging the immune system at a specific time of day may influence the quality and the quantity of the response. Further studies in humans are warranted.

What is known from human studies?

Retrospective studies indicate that clinical outcomes of immunotherapy in humans can be influenced by the timing of the infusion (open access meta-analysis).

Time of the day for infusion is an ‘influencer’ of cancer Immunotherapy.

Authors: Chen Wang, Qun Zeng, Zeynep Melis Gül, and collaborators (PI Christoph Scheiermann at University of Geneva.”

Source: Marco Donia/LinkedIn