“Hijacking the immune system”: How Helicobacter pylori compromises anti-cancer immunity

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infects half of the world’s population and, with its insidious grip on the gastric lining, it is the leading cause of stomach cancer. Worse still, the malignant influence of H. pylori is not limited to the stomach but resonates in distant tissues and orchestrates detrimental perturbations in immunological processes that affect multiple diseases. The fact that H. pylori’s reach beyond the gastric environment is associated with long-lasting immunological adaptations, which reduce survival in lung cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy, highlights once again the urgent need to unravel the intricate interplay between H. pylori and the host’s immune system. We therefore set out to conduct an in-depth investigation onto how H.pylori manipulates innate immune cells to hinder an effective anti-tumorimmune response. The current study will provide mechanistic insights ontohow H. pylori exerts its deleterious effects on host immunity and may sparkideas for innovative therapeutic approaches.