Cellular senescence enhances adaptive anticancer immunosurveillance

ABSTRACT

Cancer therapy often induces senescence in some cancer cells. Senescent cells, due to their profoundly altered biology, may conceivably interact with the adaptive immune system in novel ways that may boost cancer immunosurveillance, triggering the clearance of both senescent and non-senescent neoplastic cells. In this regard, we have recently reported that senescent cancer cells exhibit potent antigenicity and adjuvanticity and can elicit strong CD8⁺ T cell-dependent anticancer effects when used as vaccination agents.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging
• inflammation
• interferon
• immunopeptidome
• vaccination

Acknowledgments

I.M. was recipient of a FPI fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Science (PRE2018-083381). Work in the laboratory of F.P. is supported by a Karolinska Institute Starting Grant, Starting Grant from the Swedish Research Council (2019_02050_3), and by grants from the Harald Jeanssons Foundation, the Loo and Hans Osterman Foundation, and Cancerfonden (21 1637 Pj). Work in the laboratory of M.S. was funded by the IRB and “laCaixa” Foundation, and by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (SAF-2017-82613-R, RTC-2017-6123-1), European Research Council (ERC-2014-AdG/669622), Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement of Catalonia (Grup de Recerca consolidat 2017 SGR 282), and the AECC (PRYCO211023SERR).

Disclosure statement

M.S. is shareholder of Senolytic Therapeutics, Life Biosciences, Rejuveron Senescence Therapeutics and Altos Labs, and is advisor of Rejuveron Senescence Therapeutics and Altos Labs. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or manuscript preparation.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.