Multiple Myeloma is a disease of terminally differentiated plasma cells with the massive production of monoclonal immunoglobulins in the bone marrow.

Today there are many treatment modalities ongoing targeting the myeloma microenvironment, but especially immunotherapy seems to be a promising approach.

Immune checkpoints are critical components in the regulation of immune cell responses. If immune cells are activated due to the contact to an antigen, they also need to be controlled to prevent an overactive immune response. These control checkpoints are often over-expressed in cancer cells and therefore protect them from the tumour-specific immune response enabling tumour immune escape.
We investigate the role of the PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint during myeloma disease progression and determine combinatorial approaches of immunotherapeutic drugs to increase myeloma cell killing efficiency.

 

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