Modulation of programmed death‐ligand 1 expression to augment sensitivity to atezolizumab in breast cancer cells through nonthermal air gas plasma

Abstract The aggressiveness and limited treatment options make triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) a challenging condition to treat. Immune checkpoint blockade therapy, explicitly targeting the programmed death‐ligand 1 (PD‐L1) pathway, is a promising therapeutic approach. However, the effectiveness of PD‐L1 inhibitors like atezolizumab depends on adequate PD‐L1 expression within cancer cells. To this end, this study used nonthermal plasma (NTP) to modulate PD‐L1 in TNBC cells. The current investigation revealed that NTP treatment leads to an upregulation of PD‐L1; this might increase the availability of PD‐L1 to PD‐L1 inhibitors. These findings suggest that shortly NTP could be used as an adjunctive treatment to immunotherapy in TNBC cells.