2026
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AACR IO 2026
March 4, 2026
The ACIR team attended the AACR IO meeting held on February 18-21, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA, USA. This week’s extensive special feature covers select talks from the conference. We have organized the content by topics below. T cellsPhilip D. GreenbergRafi AhmedFred RamsdellAlexander MarsonRobert G. NewmanOwen N. Witte Checkpoint blockadeFathia Mami-ChouaiDario A. VignaliMegan...
Flt3L fuels DCs to promote ICB-responsive Tpex cells
February 25, 2026
An important predictor of response to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is the presence of precursor exhausted T cells (Tpex) in the tumor. Conventional type 1 DCs (cDC1) are known to maintain these Tpex, and modulation of these factors might promote better therapeutic responses. In a recent publication in Nature Immunology, Lai, Chan, Armitage...
Deep and durable T cell responses after oncolytic viral therapy in glioblastoma
February 18, 2026
In a recent clinical trial, patients with glioblastoma (GBM) were treated with a single dose of an oHSV-1-based oncolytic viral therapy, rQNestin34.5v.2 (CAN-3110, linoserpaturev), in which expression of the viral ICP34.5 gene was controlled by the nestin promoter, overexpressed in GBM. Following up on evidence that treatment was associated with immune activation signatures...
Good things come in threes: results from clinical trials to improve checkpoint blockade
February 11, 2026
Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has become a staple in the treatment of numerous cancers, but its efficacy could still be improved. Recently, three separate clinical trials explored strategies to improve ICB in the clinic. In one study, Duttagupta, Messaoudene, et al. investigated fecal microbiome transplant (FMT) in combination with ICB in patients with...
BACH2 orchestrates T cell differentiation and can be used to optimize cellular immunotherapies
February 4, 2026
Adoptive T cell transfer (ACT) and CAR-T treatment strategies are limited in their efficacy against solid tumors, as chronic antigen exposure induces exhaustion phenotypes, with reduced proliferation and effector function, limited persistence, and reduced therapeutic efficacy as consequences. Three recent back-to-back publications in Nature Immunology assessed the role of BACH2 in these processes...
Breaking bad macrophages through remodeling with armored CAR-T
January 28, 2026
CAR T cell efficacy is limited in solid tumors due to their highly immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME), which is partially and often significantly driven by tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). Various therapies are in development to remodel the TME to improve immunotherapy efficacy. Mateus-Tique et al. developed an armored CAR-T strategy that aims to deplete...
Autocrine RA production feeds back on DC function
January 21, 2026
As professional antigen-presenting cells, dendritic cells have been utilized as whole-cell vaccines, but their clinical efficacy has thus far been limited. Fang et al. found that a common protocol of using GM-CSF and IL-4 to induce bone marrow cells (BMCs) into DCs for use in vaccines led to a decline in antigen presentation...
DC cross-presentation of dead cell F-actin antigens sculpts tumor evolution
January 14, 2026
Type 1 conventional dendritic cells (cDC1s) cross-present tumor antigens to prime CD8+ T cells. DNGR-1 on cDC1s binds to F-actin of dead cells to allow for detection and internalization of necrotic debris, and signaling results in MHC-I processing and presentation of antigens from the dead cells. In a recent publication in Nature Immunology...
Friend or foe? EPOR helps cDC1s make the call
January 7, 2026
The priming of an immune response is a complex process that is largely dependent on the functional state of cDC1s, which can induce either immunogenic or tolerogenic priming, depending on a number of conditions. While numerous factors associated with antigen uptake and presentation have been linked to different immune outcomes, the mechanisms that...
