Figure 4.

Effects of several major gold complexes on adaptive immune system. Gold compounds stimulate the activation and proliferation of B cells and T cells. Antigen presenting cells (mainly dendritic cells) presents tumor antigens to T lymphocytes to initiate antigen-specific T cell immune responses. Gold derivatives can regulate the level of MHC class I and MHC class II molecules, and up-regulate the expression of PD-L1 on the surface of cancer cells. For detailed description see text. MHC, major histocompatibility complex; ROS, reactive oxygen species; ER-stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress; PD-L1, programmed death-ligand 1; GST, gold sodium thiomalate.