Harnessing PD-L1-specific cytotoxic T cells for anti-leukemia immunotherapy to defeat mechanisms of immune escape mediated by the PD-1 pathway.

The article presents a study which investigates the possibility of influencing anti-viral immunity by the use of cell death protein 1 on T cells and the ligand (PD-L1)-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs). It reveals that the presence of PD-L1-specific CTLs during the activation phase of an immune response inhibits immune responses due to the removal of PD-L1-positive APCs. It cites that targeting immune suppressive cells is an attractive option to boost clinical effect of immunotherapy.