A mini-review for cancer immunotherapy: Molecular understanding of PD-1/ PD-L1 pathway & translational blockade of immune checkpoints

Interference of the binding of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) has become a new inspiring immunotherapy for resisting cancers. To date, the FDA has approved two PD-1 monoclonal antibody drugs against cancer as well as a monoclonal antibody for PD-L1. More PD-1 and PD-L1 monoclonal antibody drugs are on their way in clinical trials. In this review, we focused on the mechanism of the PD-1/PD-L1 signaling pathway and the monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against PD-1 and PD-L1, which were approved by the FDA or are still in clinical trials. And also presented is the prospect of the PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint blockade in the next generation of immunotherapy.