{"doi":"10.3389/fphar.2023.1232456","title":"Editorial: Natural products modulate the sensitivity of cancer to anti-PD-1 based immunotherapy","abstract":"regarded as a front-line immunotherapy for several types of cancer. Blockade of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and its ligand programmed cell death-ligands 1 (PD-L1) is one of the major ICBs that has been widely used to achieve cancer immunotherapy. Blockade of the interaction between PD-1 and PD-L1 can restore the immunological functions of T cells and exert their antitumor effects (2). Although biologics including monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) targeting PD-1 or PD-L1 have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for different types of cancers, their application can be limited by drawbacks such as undesired off-target effects and prohibitive costs (3). On the contrary, small molecule-based PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors may show advantages over mAbs, such as fewer side effects and more affordable cost (4). Small molecules, especially natural products and their derivatives, have been an important resource for the discovery of anti-cancer drugs. Indeed, a number of clinically approved anti-cancer agents are natural products-based small molecules with varied mechanisms of anti-cancer activity. However, only limited studies have been reported for the development of natural products-based anti-PD-1/PD-L1 agents. This was partially attributed to the challenges including a lack of suitable analytical methods for screening hits from natural products library and less well-characterized biological evaluations of natural products (5). Therefore, this Research Topic provides a snippet of published quality reviews of scientific literature and original research communication efforts on the discovery and development of natural products for ICB-based cancer immunotherapy. The published data presented will further increase our understanding of the role of natural bioactive ingredients and derivatives for sensitization of diverse cancers to ICB such as Anti-PD-1 Based Immunotherapy. While these published data highlight the natural products-derived molecules targeting diverse cancer molecular markers, they also provide promising mechanisms through which to reduce diverse human cancer burdens via targeting immune checkpoints and tumor microenvironments.The first paper by Hernandez-Lopez et al. (2021), is a review that presents chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy as a promising immunotherapy approach for cancer treatment and discusses the challenges faced by CAR-T cell therapy while highlighting the need for it to meet regulatory requirements (6). This review provides insights into the elements, history, and potential opportunities to improve CAR-T cell therapy, aiming to make it a widely accessible and effective treatment modality for cancer patients.The second review by Dong et al. (2022) assessed the potential utility of natural products in overcoming the limitations of immunotherapy in colorectal cancer (CRC) treatment (7). While immune checkpoint inhibitors have shown benefits in certain CRC patients with dMMR/MSI-H, most CRC patients do not respond well to immunotherapy, partly due to internal resistance and immune escape. They discuss the advantages and highlighted the challenges in CRC treatment, explored the immunomodulatory effects of natural products and their bioactive components, and suggested that natural products hold potential as adjuncts in combined CRC immunotherapy approaches.The third review by Wei et al., (2022), assessed, explored, and provided a comprehensive overview of the crucial role of gut microbiota in cancer development and the role of dietary fungi in cancer immunotherapy (8). They discussed the advantages of the manipulation of gut microbiota through direct implantation or antibiotic-based depletion and its impact on the overall effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies. They discussed extensively the biological functions, underlying mechanisms, and benefits of dietary fungal supplementation in promoting cancer immunotherapies through the modulation of gut microbiota.The fourth paper by K","journal":"Frontiers in Pharmacology","year":2023,"id":408772,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9536,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":279381,"name":"Qian Ba","orcid":"0000-0002-7253-7566","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":400095,"name":"Hang Ma","orcid":"0000-0001-7565-6889","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":373502,"name":"Jean Christopher Chamcheu","orcid":"0000-0002-3927-5664","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":5,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:21:22.368387Z","pmid":"37405053","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}