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Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (생화학분자생물학회)
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CD4+ cytotoxic T cells: an emerging effector arm of anti-tumor immunity

  • Seongmin Jeong (Department of New Biology, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST)) ;
  • Nawon Jang (Department of New Biology, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST)) ;
  • Minchae Kim (Department of New Biology, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST)) ;
  • Il-Kyu Choi (Department of New Biology, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST))
  • Received : 2023.01.03
  • Accepted : 2023.02.26
  • Published : 2023.03.31
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Abstract

While CD8+ cytotoxic T cells have long been considered the primary effector in controlling tumors, the involvement of CD4+ "helper" T cells in anti-tumor immunity has been underappreciated. The investigations of intra-tumoral T cells, fueled by the recent advances in genomic technologies, have led to a rethinking of the indirect role of CD4+ T cells that have traditionally been described as a "helper". Accumulating evidence from preclinical and clinical studies indicates that CD4+ T cells can acquire intrinsic cytotoxic properties and directly kill various types of tumor cells in a major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC-II)-dependent manner, as opposed to the indirect "helper" function, thus underscoring a potentially critical contribution of CD4+ cytotoxic T cells to immune responses against a wide range of tumor types. Here, we discuss the biological properties of anti-tumor CD4+ T cells with cytotoxic capability and highlight the emerging observations suggesting their more significant role in anti-tumor immunity than previously appreciated.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by grants from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (grant no. NRF-2022R1A2C109214511 to I.-K.C.) and the DGIST Start-up Fund Program of the Ministry of Science and ICT (grant no. 2023010020 to I.-K.C.).

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