AUTHOR=Sakowska Justyna , Arcimowicz Łukasz , Jankowiak Martyna , Papak Ines , Markiewicz Aleksandra , Dziubek Katarzyna , Kurkowiak Małgorzata , Kote Sachin , Kaźmierczak-Siedlecka Karolina , Połom Karol , Marek-Trzonkowska Natalia , Trzonkowski Piotr TITLE=Autoimmunity and Cancer—Two Sides of the Same Coin JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=13 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.793234 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2022.793234 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=
Autoimmune disease results from the immune response against self-antigens, while cancer develops when the immune system does not respond to malignant cells. Thus, for years, autoimmunity and cancer have been considered as two separate fields of research that do not have a lot in common. However, the discovery of immune checkpoints and the development of anti-cancer drugs targeting PD-1 (programmed cell death receptor 1) and CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4) pathways proved that studying autoimmune diseases can be extremely helpful in the development of novel anti-cancer drugs. Therefore, autoimmunity and cancer seem to be just two sides of the same coin. In the current review, we broadly discuss how various regulatory cell populations, effector molecules, genetic predisposition, and environmental factors contribute to the loss of self-tolerance in autoimmunity or tolerance induction to cancer. With the current paper, we also aim to convince the readers that the pathways involved in cancer and autoimmune disease development consist of similar molecular players working in opposite directions. Therefore, a deep understanding of the two sides of immune tolerance is crucial for the proper designing of novel and selective immunotherapies.