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Communication in the Cancer Microenvironment as a Target for Therapeutic Interventions

The tumor microenvironment (TME) is a complex system composed of multiple cells, such as non-cancerous fibroblasts, adipocytes, immune and vascular cells, as well as signal molecules and mediators. Tumor cells recruit and reprogram other cells to produce factors that maintain tumor growth. Communica...

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Autores principales: Dominiak, Agnieszka, Chełstowska, Beata, Olejarz, Wioletta, Nowicka, Grażyna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7281160/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32422889
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers12051232
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author Dominiak, Agnieszka
Chełstowska, Beata
Olejarz, Wioletta
Nowicka, Grażyna
author_facet Dominiak, Agnieszka
Chełstowska, Beata
Olejarz, Wioletta
Nowicka, Grażyna
author_sort Dominiak, Agnieszka
collection PubMed
description The tumor microenvironment (TME) is a complex system composed of multiple cells, such as non-cancerous fibroblasts, adipocytes, immune and vascular cells, as well as signal molecules and mediators. Tumor cells recruit and reprogram other cells to produce factors that maintain tumor growth. Communication between cancerous and surrounding cells is a two-way process and engages a diverse range of mechanisms that, in consequence, can lead to rapid proliferation, metastasis, and drug resistance, or can serve as a tumors-suppressor, e.g., through tumor–immune cell interaction. Cross-talk within the cancer microenvironment can be direct by cell-to-cell contact via adhesion molecules, electrical coupling, and passage through gap junctions, or indirect through classical paracrine signaling by cytokines, growth factors, and extracellular vesicles. Therapeutic approaches for modulation of cell-cell communication may be a promising strategy to combat tumors. In particular, integrative approaches targeting tumor communication in combination with conventional chemotherapy seem reasonable. Currently, special attention is paid to suppressing the formation of open-ended channels as well as blocking exosome production or ablating their cargos. However, many aspects of cell-to-cell communication have yet to be clarified, and, in particular, more work is needed in regard to mechanisms of bidirectional signal transfer. Finally, it seems that some interactions in TEM can be not only cancer-specific, but also patient-specific, and their recognition would help to predict patient response to therapy.
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spelling pubmed-72811602020-06-15 Communication in the Cancer Microenvironment as a Target for Therapeutic Interventions Dominiak, Agnieszka Chełstowska, Beata Olejarz, Wioletta Nowicka, Grażyna Cancers (Basel) Review The tumor microenvironment (TME) is a complex system composed of multiple cells, such as non-cancerous fibroblasts, adipocytes, immune and vascular cells, as well as signal molecules and mediators. Tumor cells recruit and reprogram other cells to produce factors that maintain tumor growth. Communication between cancerous and surrounding cells is a two-way process and engages a diverse range of mechanisms that, in consequence, can lead to rapid proliferation, metastasis, and drug resistance, or can serve as a tumors-suppressor, e.g., through tumor–immune cell interaction. Cross-talk within the cancer microenvironment can be direct by cell-to-cell contact via adhesion molecules, electrical coupling, and passage through gap junctions, or indirect through classical paracrine signaling by cytokines, growth factors, and extracellular vesicles. Therapeutic approaches for modulation of cell-cell communication may be a promising strategy to combat tumors. In particular, integrative approaches targeting tumor communication in combination with conventional chemotherapy seem reasonable. Currently, special attention is paid to suppressing the formation of open-ended channels as well as blocking exosome production or ablating their cargos. However, many aspects of cell-to-cell communication have yet to be clarified, and, in particular, more work is needed in regard to mechanisms of bidirectional signal transfer. Finally, it seems that some interactions in TEM can be not only cancer-specific, but also patient-specific, and their recognition would help to predict patient response to therapy. MDPI 2020-05-14 /pmc/articles/PMC7281160/ /pubmed/32422889 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers12051232 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Dominiak, Agnieszka
Chełstowska, Beata
Olejarz, Wioletta
Nowicka, Grażyna
Communication in the Cancer Microenvironment as a Target for Therapeutic Interventions
title Communication in the Cancer Microenvironment as a Target for Therapeutic Interventions
title_full Communication in the Cancer Microenvironment as a Target for Therapeutic Interventions
title_fullStr Communication in the Cancer Microenvironment as a Target for Therapeutic Interventions
title_full_unstemmed Communication in the Cancer Microenvironment as a Target for Therapeutic Interventions
title_short Communication in the Cancer Microenvironment as a Target for Therapeutic Interventions
title_sort communication in the cancer microenvironment as a target for therapeutic interventions
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7281160/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32422889
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers12051232
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