Immunopharmacology Comments

Adenosine suppresses the antitumour activity of T cells and other immune cells. Experimental studies are therefore evaluating the ability of adenosine receptor antagonists to abrogate adenosine-induced immunosuppression in the tumour microenvironment and to stimulate antitumour immune responses and tumour regression. Ciforadenant-mediated antagonism of the A2A receptor improves effector (T) cell function and leads to improved antitumour responses to checkpoint inhibitors in murine xenograft models [1-2]. Ciforadenant is proposed to induce systemic anti-tumour immune memory, that rejects tumour growth in re-challenged xenograft mice. These lines of evidence have led to the progression of ciforadenant to Phase 1 clinical evaluation as an adjunct to PD-L1 checkpoint blockade in advanced solid tumours.