ArticleOncotarget2017
The TLR7 agonist imiquimod induces anti-cancer effects via autophagic cell death and enhances anti-tumoral and systemic immunity during radiotherapy for melanoma.
Article in Oncotarget, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06686043 (A Phase 2 Study of HPV L1 Vaccine in Combination With Imiquimod and Metformin in Cervical, Vaginal, and Vulvar Cancers), which is not on this map. Cited by 67 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
A Phase 2 Study of HPV L1 Vaccine in Combination With Imiquimod and Metformin in Cervical, Vaginal, and Vulvar Cancers
Who cites it
67 citing papers in PubMed, 94 citations in OpenAlex.
- IntegratedACS pharmacology & translational science · 2026Article
- TLR7 Agonist Imiquimod Improves the Therapeutic Antitumor Effect of High-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy.Cancers · 2026Article
- Monocyte-Macrophage Lineages in Cancer: Biology, Plasticity, and Therapeutic Targeting.Cancer biome and targeted therapy · 2026Article
- BCG Induces PD-1 Upregulation on Circulating CD8Oncology research · 2026Article
- Next-Generation Immune Checkpoints and Tumor Microenvironment Modulation in Cancer Immunotherapy.Journal of immunology research · 2026Review
- Bacterial RNA downregulates MHC-I in tumor cell lines, promoting NK response and delaying tumor growth.PloS one · 2026Article
- Enhancing Cancer Therapy with TLR7/8 Agonists: Applications in Vaccines and Combination Treatments.Cancers · 2025Review
- Emerging Therapeutic Strategies for Lung Cancer: The Role of Immunotherapy and HPV-Targeted Cancer Vaccines.Vaccines · 2025Review
- Multi-omics and functional characterization of the tumor-killing capacity of Imiquimod-activated plasmacytoid dendritic cells.iScience · 2025Article
- Efflux-Enhanced Imidazoquinolines To Exploit Chemoresistance.ACS omega · 2025Article
- Normalization of tumor vasculature by imiquimod: proposal for a new anticancer therapeutic indication for a TLR7 agonist.Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII · 2025Article
- Interplay between MAPK signaling pathway and autophagy in skin aging: mechanistic insights and therapeutic implications.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2025Review
- Programmed Death Ligand 1 Modulation by Bacillus Calmette-Guérin and Toll-Like Receptor Agonists in Distinct Breast Cancer Cell Subtypes.International journal of general medicine · 2025Article
- Mitophagy: A Potential Therapeutic Target for Tuberculosis Immunotherapy.ImmunoTargets and therapy · 2025Review
- New horizons in cancer immunotherapy: The evolving role of R848 and R837 (Review).Molecular and clinical oncology · 2025Review
- From defense to offense: Modulating toll-like receptors to combat arbovirus infections.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2024Review
- Repurposed Drugs and Plant-Derived Natural Products as Potential Host-Directed Therapeutic Candidates for Tuberculosis.Biomolecules · 2024Review
- Harnessing innate immune pathways for therapeutic advancement in cancer.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2024Review
- Therapeutic synthetic and natural materials for immunoengineering.Chemical Society reviews · 2024Review
- Advanced lung cancer inflammation index is associated with prognosis in skin cancer patients: a retrospective cohort study.Frontiers in oncology · 2024Article
7 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands are strongly considered immune-adjuvants for cancer immunotherapy and have been shown to exert direct anti-cancer effects. This study was performed to evaluate the synergistic anti-cancer and anti-metastatic effects of the TLR7 agonist imiquimod (IMQ) during radiotherapy for melanoma. The pretreatment of B16F10 or B16F1 cells with IMQ combined with γ-ionizing radiation (IR) led to enhanced cell death via autophagy, as demonstrated by increased expression levels of autophagy-related genes, and an increased number of autophagosomes in both cell lines. The results also confirmed that the autophagy process was accelerated via the reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathway in the cells pretreated with IMQ combined with IR. Mice subcutaneously injected with melanoma cells showed a reduced tumor growth rate after treatment with IMQ and IR. Treatment with 3-methyladenine (3-MA), ameliorated the anti-cancer effect of IMQ combined with IR. Additionally, the combination therapy enhanced anti-cancer immunity, as demonstrated by an increased number of CD8+ T cells and decreased numbers of regulatory T cells (Treg) and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in the tumor lesions. Moreover, the combination therapy decreased the number of metastatic nodules in the lungs of mice that were injected with B16F10 cells via the tail vein. In addition, the combination therapy enhanced systemic anti-cancer immunity by increasing the abundances of T cell populations expressing IFN-γ and TNF-α. Therefore, these findings suggest that IMQ could serve as a radiosensitizer and immune booster during radiotherapy for melanoma patients.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.