TY - JOUR T1 - Combined effect of anti-BAG3 and anti-PD-1 treatment on macrophage infiltrate, CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell number and tumour growth in pancreatic cancer JF - Gut JO - Gut SP - 780 LP - 782 DO - 10.1136/gutjnl-2017-314225 VL - 67 IS - 4 AU - Vittoria Iorio AU - Alessandra Rosati AU - Raffaella D’Auria AU - Margot De Marco AU - Liberato Marzullo AU - Anna Basile AU - Michelina Festa AU - Maria Pascale AU - Paolo Remondelli AU - Mario Capunzo AU - Gianluca Sala AU - Verena Damiani AU - Giuseppina Amodio AU - Marta Di Nicola AU - Rossano Lattanzio AU - Maria Caterina Turco AU - Vincenzo De Laurenzi Y1 - 2018/04/01 UR - http://gut.bmj.com/content/67/4/780.abstract N2 - We read with great interest the article by Zhang et al 1 showing that CD8+ cell infiltration in pancreatic tumours can be enhanced by depletion of myeloid cells (CD11b+ macrophages and myeloid-derived suppressor cells) and that the depletion of CD11b+ cells resulted in decreased PD-L1 expression on cancer cells thus impairing the triggering of the inhibitory receptor PD-1 on T cells.1 Recruitment and activation of CD8+ lymphocytes in tumours are suppressed by mechanisms only partially understood and rescuing CD8+ cell infiltrate in tumours is one of the objectives of immunotherapies.1 2 Tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) play a crucial role in the relation between tumour cells and their environment.3 Here, we confirm the interplay between macrophages and CD8+ cells in pancreatic cancer and identify a potential way to exploit this enhancing effect of anti-PD-1 treatment. Indeed, we show that reduction of macrophage infiltrate, through treatment with an anti-Bcl-2-Associated athanoGene 3 (BAG3) antibody,4 results in increased number of CD8+ cells in pancreatic tumours in a murine model. BAG3 is a co-chaperone of … ER -