Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics

Deciphering Immunotherapy Resistance: Targets, Mechanisms, and Therapeutic Innovations

Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics is pleased to announce a new Article Collection dedicated to understanding mechanisms and developing new therapeutics to combat immunotherapy resistance.

Immunotherapy has transformed the landscape of modern medicine by harnessing the immune system to prevent or treat diseases. While therapeutic vaccines and immune checkpoint modulators have demonstrated remarkable success, their efficacy is often limited by intrinsic or acquired resistance. Understanding the complex mechanisms that drive immunotherapy resistance is therefore essential to improve patient outcomes across infectious diseases, cancer, and other immune-mediated conditions.

This Article Collection, “Deciphering Immunotherapy Resistance: Targets, Mechanisms, and Therapeutic Innovations”, aims to consolidate cutting-edge research on the molecular, cellular, and translational mechanisms that underlie resistance to immunotherapies. It encompasses both cancer immunotherapies and human vaccines, highlighting novel immune targets, pathways contributing to reduced efficacy, and innovative strategies to overcome these challenges. By integrating insights from basic, preclinical, and translational studies, this Collection seeks to guide the development of next-generation immunotherapeutic approaches that are more effective, personalized, and broadly applicable.

Despite remarkable advances in immunotherapy and vaccine development, many patients fail to achieve optimal protection or therapeutic benefit due to intrinsic or acquired resistance. In cancer, infectious diseases, and other immune-mediated conditions, resistance mechanisms, such as immune evasion, antigenic variability, or dysregulated immune signalling; limit the efficacy of current interventions. Understanding these mechanisms is critical for identifying novel immune targets and designing innovative strategies to overcome resistance. Addressing immunotherapy resistance not only has the potential to improve vaccine efficacy and therapeutic outcomes but also to guide the development of next-generation immunotherapies that are more personalized, durable, and broadly effective. By integrating mechanistic insights with translational applications, this research can transform patient care and advance global public health.

This Collection welcomes high-impact original research, reviews, mini-reviews, perspectives/commentaries, methodology papers and graphical reviews/visual communications focusing on the diverse scientific and translational innovations to circumvent immunotherapy resistance. Key themes include, but are not limited to:

1. Molecular and cellular mechanisms of resistance to immunotherapies and vaccines;
2. Novel immune targets to overcome therapeutic resistance;
3. Role of the tumor microenvironment and immune microenvironments in modulating therapy response;
4. Immune evasion mechanisms in infectious diseases and vaccination;
5. Strategies to enhance vaccine efficacy in resistant populations;
6. Combination therapies to circumvent resistance;
7. Translational and clinical studies of innovative immunotherapeutic approaches;
8. Biomarker discovery for predicting therapy response and resistance

Keywords:

Therapeutic vaccines; Immune checkpoints; Personalized immunotherapy; Infectious disease vaccines; Combination Therapy

Manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review. Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript as it will be rejected if it does not fall within the scope of the journal.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 16 November 2026. 

Please submit your manuscript on our website, selecting "Deciphering Immunotherapy Resistance: Targets, Mechanisms, and Therapeutic Innovations" from the drop-down menu for consideration in this Article Collection. Please include any discount codes before you submit as these codes will not be applied retrospectively. For Article Collection and/or discount queries, please contact the Commissioning Editor, Ashley Ambros.

Meet the Guest Advisors

Dr. Vinay Kumar is a Researcher (junior faculty) at the Heart and Vascular Institute, Pennsylvania State University, where his work focuses on dissecting dysregulated innate and adaptive immune networks in myocardial infarction (MI) and chronic heart failure (HF). His research emphasizes understanding the roles of distinct T-cell subsets and the time-dependent phenotypic shifts these cells undergo during chronic HF. Additionally, Dr. Kumar is dedicated to developing innovative immunomodulatory strategies to reverse pathological immune alterations and facilitate their translation from bench to bedside.

Dr. Anuradha Tyagi is a biomedical researcher specializing in inflammation biology, wound healing, and host–pathogen interactions. Her work demonstrates that timely modulation of the inflammatory phase is crucial for proper wound closure and tissue repair, particularly in conditions like radiation dermatitis. She has highlighted the therapeutic potential of secondary bile acids in chronic wound management, showing their ability to inhibit biofilm formation, neutralize bacterial virulence factors, modulate pro-inflammatory cytokines, and promote angiogenesis. Dr. Tyagi’s research advances our understanding of immune responses, microbial dynamics, and tissue regeneration, with important translational implications for chronic wound therapy.

Dr. Chaitenya Verma is currently working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biotechnology, Sharda University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. Dr. Verma has done his PhD at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi focusing on the field of infection immunobiology in HIV-TB co-infected patients. His research aimed to understand the immune regulation of Tuberculosis-associated Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome (TB-IRIS) in HIV patients. He did his postdoctoral training at the Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Center for Biomedical Research (ACBR) at Delhi University, where he studied the role of calcium channels in modulating key players of the innate immune system, such as dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages, and their effects on regulating effector T cell responses in Staphylococcus aureus and M. tuberculosis infection. Further, he joined The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA, where he continued his work in infection biology to target Leishmaniasis, which is highly prominent in Eastern regions India. His work at Ohio State University involved interpreting Leishmania host-pathogen interaction and evaluating immunological paradigms such as inflammatory monocytes, dendritic cells, and other immunological parameters to create a vaccine against visceral and cutaneous Leishmania. Additionally, he worked to develop new  combinations of drugs to improve existing therapeutic methods.