Recent progress in targeting the sialylated glycan-SIGLEC axis in cancer immunotherapy

Malignant tumors are complex structures composed of cancer cells and tumor microenvironmental cells.In this complex structure,cells cross-talk and interact,thus jointly promoting cancer development and metastasis.Recently,immunoregulatory molecule-based cancer immunotherapy has greatly improved treatment efficacy for solid cancers,thus enabling some patients to achieve persistent responses or cure.However,owing to the development of drug-resistance and the low response rate,immunotherapy against the available targets PD-1/PD-L1 or CTLA-4 has limited benefits.Although combination therapies have been proposed to enhance the response rate,severe adverse effects are observed.Thus,alternative immune checkpoints must be identified.The SIGLECs are a family of immunoregulatory receptors(known as glyco-immune checkpoints)discovered in recent years.This review systematically describes the molecular characteristics of the SIGLECs,and discusses recent progress in areas including synthetic ligands,monoclonal antibody inhibitors,and Chimeric antigen receptor T(CAR-T)cells,with a focus on available strategies for blocking the sialylated glycan-SIGLEC axis.Targeting glyco-immune checkpoints can expand the scope of immune checkpoints and provide multiple options for new drug development.