Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
Volume 109, Issue 4 , Pages 248-257, April 2010

HLA-G and Immune Evasion in Cancer Cells

  • Jim Sheu

      Affiliations

    • Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
    • Human Genetic Center, China Medical University Hospital, Taiwan
    • Graduate Institute of Chinese Medical Science, China Medical University, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Ie-Ming Shih

      Affiliations

    • Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence to: Professor Ie-Ming Shih, Departments of Pathology, Oncology, Gynecology/Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21231, USA

Received 26 January 2010; received in revised form 29 January 2010; accepted 12 February 2010.

Article Outline

Acquisition of novel gene products or new antigens in cancer cells elicits a host immune response that results in selection pressure for tumor clones to evade immunosurveillance. Similar to maternal–fetal tolerance and allotransplantation acceptance, upregulation of HLA-G expression has been found as one of the mechanisms that are programmed in cancer cells. HLA-G expression is frequently detected in a wide variety of human cancers and its protein levels negatively correlate with poor clinical outcome. The immune inhibitory effect can be achieved by binding of HLA-G molecules to the immunoglobulin-like inhibitory receptors that are expressed on the immunocompetent cells at all stages of the immune response. This review summarizes recent studies of HLA-G expression in human cancer, with a special focus on the molecular mechanisms that underlie how HLA-G molecules facilitate tumor cell evasion of the host immune response, and presents new directions for developing HLA-G-based diagnosis/therapeutics.

Key Words:  cancer , HLA-G , immunosurveillance , therapeutics

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PII: S0929-6646(10)60050-2

doi:10.1016/S0929-6646(10)60050-2

Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
Volume 109, Issue 4 , Pages 248-257, April 2010

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