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The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays an important role in the development of tumors. Immunoregulatory cells and cytokines facilitate cancer cells to avoid immune surveillance. Overexpression of immune checkpoint molecules such as CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-L1 inhibits immune function and enables cancer cells to avoid clearance by the immune system. Thus, minimizing tumor immunosuppression could be an important strategy for cancer therapy. Currently, many immune checkpoint-targeted drugs, such as PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, have been approved for marketing and have shown unique advantages in the clinical treatment of cancers. The concept of "strengthening resistance to eliminate pathogenic factors" in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is consistent with the immunotherapy of cancer. According to previous studies, the role of TCM in tumor immunotherapy is mainly associated with the positive regulation of natural killer cells, CD8/CD4 T cells, dendritic cells, M2 macrophages, interleukin-2, tumor necrosis factor- α , and IFN- γ , as well as with the negative regulation of Tregs, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, cancer-associated fibroblasts, PD-1/PD-L1, transforming growth factor- β , and tumor necrosis factor- β. This paper summarizes the current research on the effect of TCM targeting the TME, and further introduces the research progress on studying the effects of TCM on immune checkpoints. Modern pharmacological studies have demonstrated that TCM can directly or indirectly affect the TME by inhibiting the overexpression of immune checkpoint molecules and enhancing the efficacy of tumor immunotherapy. TCM with immunomodulatory stimulation could be the key factor to achieve benefits from immunotherapy for patients with non-inflammatory, or "cold", tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Establishment of a leukemia plasmacytoid dendritic cell line (PMDC05) and intra-lineage transformation from pDCs to mDCs in PMDC05 has been reported. In this paper, we show the applicability of PMDC05 for cellular immunotherapy. By stimulation with LPS, PMDC05 showed enhancement in expression of antigen presentation-associated surface molecules and production of cytokines (IL-12p70 and TNF-α). The antigen presenting ability was markedly increased in PMDC05 stimulated with LPS. By co-culturing of CD8+ T cells with LPS-stimulated and WT1/CMVpp65 peptide-pulsed PMDC05, WT1/CMVpp65 tetramer+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes were efficiently generated. These findings reveal the applicability of PMDC05 in cellular immunotherapy for tumor and severe viral infections. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]