Immunotherapy, especially PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint blockade
immunotherapy, has led
tumor therapy into a new era. However, the vast majority of patients do not benefit from
immunotherapy. One possible reason for this lack of response is that the association between
tumors, immune cells and metabolic reprogramming in the tumor microenvironment affect tumor immune escape. Generally, the limited amount of metabolites in the tumor microenvironment leads to nutritional competition between
tumors and immune cells. Metabolism regulates
tumor cell expression of PD-L1, and the PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint regulates the metabolism of
tumor and T cells, which suggests that targeted
tumor metabolism may have a synergistic
therapeutic effect together with
immunotherapy. However, the targeting of different metabolic pathways in different
tumors may have different effects on tumor immune escape. Herein, we discuss the influence of
glucose metabolism and
glutamine metabolism on tumor immune escape and describe the theoretical basis for strategies targeting
glucose or
glutamine metabolism in combination with PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint blockade
immunotherapy.