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Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy is a treatment modality used in many types of cancer. Immune-related adverse events are relatively common. Cardiovascular adverse events are uncommon, but carry a high mortality rate of 25–50%. They require cessation of therapy. There is currently no universal screening before initiation of ICI therapy to identify patients with cardiovascular risk. There is also no ongoing screening to identify myocarditis and treatment is driven by symptoms. This article provides a case study of a patient who developed myopericarditis and the patient's clinical course. Furthermore, it proposes surveillance for patients before and during ICI therapy to swiftly identify potential cases of myocarditis. There is currently no universal baseline screening for cardiovascular risk in patients planned for ICI therapy. A proposed baseline cardiac evaluation, as well as scheduled surveillance therapy, is outlined in this article. With further education and training, immune-related cardiac adverse events may be more promptly detected, leading to better patient outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yuanxiang Li,* Yang Hu,* Bin Yang, Caibao Jin, Hui Ren, Jingyi Wu, Zhijun Wang, Youying Wei, Ling Yang, Yanping Hu Department of Oncology, Hubei Cancer Hospital, TongJi Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430079, Hubei, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yanping HuDepartment of Oncology, Hubei Cancer Hospital, TongJi Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430079, Hubei, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail h-y-p@126.comAbstract: PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors activate immunological response and have become one of the main modalities of cancer treatment. However, they may result in the immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Immune-related cardiotoxicity is relatively rare but may become fatal. We will present a case of a male patient who experienced immunotherapy-related cardiotoxicity one year after received pembrolizumab treatment. The patient had atypical symptom presentation initially, but his condition deteriorated worsened rapidly and he developed severe cardiac disease. The patient experienced significant relief after corticosteroid treatment. Unfortunately, he experienced a reoccurence of the severe adverse event when discontinuing the use of corticosteroids. Ultimately, larger doses and longer courses of corticosteroid treatment cured the heart damage. Fortunately, we observed that lesions were stable and maintained for a long time after cessation of using pembrolizumab for eight months.Keywords: PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, immune-related cardiotoxicity, non-small cell lung cancer

Aim: Immunological checkpoint therapy is considered a powerful method for cancer therapy and acts by re-activating autologous T cells to kill the cancer cell. Myocarditis cases have been reported in cancer patients after immunological therapy; for example, nivolumab treatment is a monoclonal antibody that blocks programmed cell death-1/programmed cell death ligand-1 ligand interaction. This project provided insight into the inflammatory response as a benchmark to investigate the potential cardiotoxic effect of T cell response to the programmed cell death-1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) axis in regulating cardiomyocyte injury in vitro. Methods and Results: We investigated cardiomyopathy resulted from the PD-1/PD-L1 axis blockade using the anti-PD-1 antibody in Rockefeller University embryonic stem cells-derived cardiomyocytes (RUES2-CMs) and a melanoma tumor-bearing murine model. We found that nivolumab alone did not induce inflammatory-related proteins, including PD-L1 expression, and did not induce apoptosis, which was contrary to doxorubicin, a cardiotoxic chemotherapy drug. However, nivolumab was able to exacerbate the immune response by increasing cytokine and inflammatory gene expression in RUES2-CMs when co-cultured with CD4+ T lymphocytes and induced apoptosis. This effect was not observed when RUES2-CMs were co-cultured with CD8+ T lymphocytes. The in vivo model showed that the heart function of tumor-bearing mice was decreased after treatment with anti-PD-1 antibody and demonstrated a dilated left ventricle histological examination. The dilated left ventricle was associated with an infiltration of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes into the myocardium. PD-L1 and inflammatory-associated gene expression were significantly increased in anti-PD-1-treated tumor-bearing mice. Cleaved caspase-3 and mouse plasma cardiac troponin I expressions were increased significantly. Conclusion: PD-L1 expression on cardiomyocytes suppressed T-cell function. Blockade of PD-1 by nivolumab enhanced cardiomyocyte inflammation and apoptosis through the enhancement of T-cell response towards cardiomyocytes.

Aim: Immunological checkpoint therapy is considered a powerful method for cancer therapy and acts by re-activating autologous T cells to kill the cancer cell. Myocarditis cases have been reported in cancer patients after immunological therapy; for example, nivolumab treatment is a monoclonal antibody that blocks programmed cell death-1/programmed cell death ligand-1 ligand interaction. This project provided insight into the inflammatory response as a benchmark to investigate the potential cardiotoxic effect of T cell response to the programmed cell death-1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) axis in regulating cardiomyocyte injury in vitro. Methods and Results: We investigated cardiomyopathy resulted from the PD-1/PD-L1 axis blockade using the anti-PD-1 antibody in Rockefeller University embryonic stem cells-derived cardiomyocytes (RUES2-CMs) and a melanoma tumor-bearing murine model. We found that nivolumab alone did not induce inflammatory-related proteins, including PD-L1 expression, and did not induce apoptosis, which was contrary to doxorubicin, a cardiotoxic chemotherapy drug. However, nivolumab was able to exacerbate the immune response by increasing cytokine and inflammatory gene expression in RUES2-CMs when co-cultured with CD4+ T lymphocytes and induced apoptosis. This effect was not observed when RUES2-CMs were co-cultured with CD8+ T lymphocytes. The in vivo model showed that the heart function of tumor-bearing mice was decreased after treatment with anti-PD-1 antibody and demonstrated a dilated left ventricle histological examination. The dilated left ventricle was associated with an infiltration of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes into the myocardium. PD-L1 and inflammatory-associated gene expression were significantly increased in anti-PD-1-treated tumor-bearing mice. Cleaved caspase-3 and mouse plasma cardiac troponin I expressions were increased significantly. Conclusion: PD-L1 expression on cardiomyocytes suppressed T-cell function. Blockade of PD-1 by nivolumab enhanced cardiomyocyte inflammation and apoptosis through the enhancement of T-cell response towards cardiomyocytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]