Use of enhanced interleukin-2 formulations for improved immunotherapy against cancer

Rodney A Rosalia1, Natalia Arenas-Ramirez1, Grégory Bouchaud2

  • 1Department of Immunology, University Hospital Zurich, Gloriastrasse 30, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland.

The use of interleukin-2 (IL-2) for the stimulation of an effector immune response against metastatic cancer dates back to the early 1980s. Administration of unmodified IL-2, either alone or together with antigen-specific approaches, has resulted in remarkably long-term survival of some patients suffering from metastatic melanoma. However, such treatment is usually hampered by the appearance of toxic adverse effects, which has motivated the engineering of modified IL-2 formulations showing reduced toxicity while being more potent at stimulating anti-tumor effector immune cells. In this review we summarize and discuss the features and biological relevance of several enhanced IL-2 formulations, compare these to IL-15-based therapeutics, and try to foreshadow their potential in immunological research and immunotherapy.

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