Abstract

Glucocorticoids are powerful anti-inflammatory compounds and widely used in the therapy of allergic diseases. This study aimed to determine the effect of dexamethasone (Dex) on the immunomodulatory function in vitro and in vivo. The development of in vitro methods is important in drug discovery process due to the restriction of animal use in the pharmacological screening process. Corticosteroids are routinely utilized to alleviate edema in patients with intracranial lesions and are first-line agents to combat immune-related adverse events (irAEs) that arise with immune checkpoint blockade treatment. However, it is not known if or when corticosteroids can be administered without abrogating the efforts of immunotherapy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of dexamethasone on lymphocyte activation and proliferation during checkpoint blockade to provide guidance for corticosteroid use while immunotherapy is being implemented as a cancer treatment.