Fig. 1

Immunotherapeutic strategies for GBM treatment. Four main immunotherapeutic strategies (immune checkpoint inhibitors, adoptive T-cell therapies, cancer vaccines, and oncolytic viral therapies) have been developed for GBM. A Immune checkpoint inhibitors are monoclonal antibodies that target classical (e.g., PD-1, PD-L1, and CTLA-4) and novel (e.g., LAG-3, TIM-3, TIGIT, and IDO1) immune checkpoints. B Adoptive T-cell therapy involves the infusion of activated (TILs) or engineered (CMV-specific T cells and CAR-T cells) autologous T cells to increase their antitumor activity. C Cancer vaccines use tumor antigens to activate the adaptive immune system of GBM patients, which can be delivered in the form of peptides, DCs, DNA/RNA, and viral vectors. D Oncolytic viral therapies (e.g., HSVs, poliovirus, adenovirus, and retrovirus) use replication-competent viruses to selectively infect and destroy cancer cells. Abbreviations: CAR chimeric antigen receptor, CMV cytomegalovirus, CTLA-4 cytotoxic T lymphocyte associated protein 4, DC dendritic cell, EGFRvIII epidermal growth factor receptor variant III, GBM glioblastoma, HSPPC-96 heat shock protein peptide complex-96, IDO1 indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1, IL-13Rα2 interleukin-13 receptor subunit alpha 2, LAG-3 lymphocyte activation gene-3, PD-1 programmed cell death protein 1, PD-L1 programmed cell death ligand 1, TAAs tumor associated antigens, TIGIT T-cell immunoreceptor with immunoglobulin and ITIM domain, TILs tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, TIM-3 T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain 3, TSAs tumor specific antigens