[Research progress of tumor neoantigen-specific adoptive cellular immunotherapy]

Tumour neoantigen sprimarily refer to a specific group of tumour antigens derived from tumour mutant proteins, but also including antigens generated by the oncogenic viruses integrated into the genome, which are not expressed by normal cells in the human body but are specifically expressed in tumor cells, and are capable of triggering the tumour-specific cellular and humoral immunity in the host. In recent years, significant advances in tumor immunotherapy such as therapeutic oncology vaccines, and adoptive cell therapy (ACT) have been acquired. However, standalone tumor therapeutic vaccines exhibit several drawbacks. They possess low immunogenicity, face a substantial tumor burden, and are highly susceptible to the immunosuppressive microenvironment. Consequently, when applied in isolation during clinical practice, their therapeutic efficacy remains limited. Compared with immunotherapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors and tumor vaccines, ACT is less affected by the immunosuppressive microenvironment in the body and can generate a sufficient number of killer cells. The crux of ACT lies in the generation of immunogenic tumor-specific killer cells. Neoantigens enhance the immunogenicity and anti-tumor specificity of ACT. Among them, the ACT targeting mutant gene mutations, including ERBB2IP, KRAS and TP53, as well as those derived from viruses such as Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and human papillomavirus (HPV), is primarily summarized. Moreover, the existing issues of neoantigen-specific ACT and corresponding countermeasures are summarized and discussed.