Innate lymphoid cells and cancer

Nicolas Jacquelot (1, 2) , Cyril Seillet (3, 4) , Eric Vivier (5, 6, 7) , Gabrielle Belz (8)

1 University Health Network
2 Princess Margaret Cancer Centre [Toronto, Canada]
3 WEHI - The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
4 University of Melbourne
5 CIML - Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille - Luminy
6 Innate Pharma
7 TIMONE - Hôpital de la Timone [CHU - APHM]
8 University of Queensland - The Diamantina Institute

The innate lymphoid cell (ILC) family is composed of natural killer (NK) cells, ILC1, ILC2 and ILC3, which participate in immune responses to virus, bacteria, parasites and transformed cells. ILC1, ILC2 and ILC3 subsets are mostly tissue-resident, and are profoundly imprinted by their organ of residence. They exhibit pleiotropic effects, driving seemingly paradoxical responses such as tissue repair and, alternatively, immunopathology toward allergens and promotion of tumorigenesis. Despite this, a trickle of studies now suggests that non-NK ILCs may not be overwhelmingly tumorigenic and could potentially be harnessed to drive anti-tumor responses. Here, we examine the pleiotropic behavior of ILCs in cancer and begin to unravel the gap in our knowledge that exposes a new horizon for thinking about modifying ILCs and targeting them for immunotherapy.

Keywords: Innate lymphoid cells; Tumour immunology

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]

Nicolas Jacquelot, Cyril Seillet, Eric Vivier, Gabrielle Belz. Innate lymphoid cells and cancer. Nature Immunology, 2022, 23 (3), pp.371-379. ⟨10.1038/s41590-022-01127-z⟩. ⟨hal-03960114⟩