Pembrolizumab/Keytruda: Difference between revisions

T-cells are a major component of the immune response in the human body. They have the ability to recognize cancer-related antigens as non-self and eliminate those cells <ref>doi  10.2147/DDDT.S78036</ref>. PD-L1 and PD-L2 are ligands expressed by some tumors and inhibit T-cell function when bound to PD-1, which is located on the surface of antigen-specific T-cells <ref>doi 10.1007/s40265-016-0543-x</ref>. When PD-L1 is ligated to PD-1 an adaptive immune response occurs, and this allows cancer cells to bypass immune surveillance and grow uncontrollably. Pembrolizumab is an FDA-approved treatment that works as a PD-1 pathway inhibitor to fight numerous forms of cancer, such as metastatic melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer. As an inhibitor, Pembrolizumab targets the cell death of PD-1 and blocks the immune checkpoint pathway. Pembrolizumab has a very high affinity to PD-1, allowing it to block the interaction between PD-1 with PD-L1 and PD-L2 very efficiently. It antagonizes the interaction between PD-1 and its known ligands, and re-activates anti-tumor immunity <ref name="log" />. The PD-1/PD-L1 interaction inhibits T-lymphocyte proliferation, releases cytokines and cytotoxicity, and exhausts tumor-specific T-cells. The inhibition of this pathway reverses the exhausted t-cell phenotype and normalizes the anti-tumor response. One downside of Pembrolizumab is that it may cause inflammatory side effects <ref name="horita" />.

</StructureSection>