CTLA-4 (CD152): A versatile receptor for immune-based therapy

Coreceptor-based immunotherapy is a rapidly developing approach to treat cancer patients. Among those targeted receptors, CTLA-4 is the primary attenuator of adaptive immune responses and the most prominent and extensively investigated molecule in this field. CTLA-4 is involved in broad range of mechanisms that regulate and control immune cell functions and therefore provides versatile strategies for therapeutic interventions. Despite being successfully harnessed in clinical treatments the different facets of CTLA-4 biology still remain incompletely understood. Here, we review the various aspects of CTLA-4 functions and CTLA-4-based immunotherapies and discuss challenges to improve current approaches.