Novel fully human agonist antibodies against the T-cell costimulatory receptor CD27 shape adaptive anti-tumor immunity

CD27, a member of the TNF receptor superfamily, plays a critical role in T-cell activation supporting CD28-mediated co-stimulation. CD27 signaling enhances T-cell proliferation, activation and differentiation of effector and memory T cells and therefore promotes cytotoxic T cell based anti-tumor immunity. Agonistic stimulation of CD27 has been overlooked as a promising therapeutic target for immunotherapy. In many tumors, CD27 remains expressed on tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) to provide the necessary co-stimulatory signal to T cells, especially CD8+ T cells.