Cargando…

Nature vs. Nurture: The Two Opposing Behaviors of Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes in the Tumor Microenvironment

Similar to Janus, the two-faced god of Roman mythology, the tumor microenvironment operates two opposing and often conflicting activities, on the one hand fighting against tumor cells, while on the other hand, favoring their proliferation, survival and migration to other sites to establish metastase...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Capitani, Nagaja, Patrussi, Laura, Baldari, Cosima T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8540886/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34681881
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms222011221
_version_ 1784589095185416192
author Capitani, Nagaja
Patrussi, Laura
Baldari, Cosima T.
author_facet Capitani, Nagaja
Patrussi, Laura
Baldari, Cosima T.
author_sort Capitani, Nagaja
collection PubMed
description Similar to Janus, the two-faced god of Roman mythology, the tumor microenvironment operates two opposing and often conflicting activities, on the one hand fighting against tumor cells, while on the other hand, favoring their proliferation, survival and migration to other sites to establish metastases. In the tumor microenvironment, cytotoxic T cells—the specialized tumor-cell killers—also show this dual nature, operating their tumor-cell directed killing activities until they become exhausted and dysfunctional, a process promoted by cancer cells themselves. Here, we discuss the opposing activities of immune cells populating the tumor microenvironment in both cancer progression and anti-cancer responses, with a focus on cytotoxic T cells and on the molecular mechanisms responsible for the efficient suppression of their killing activities as a paradigm of the power of cancer cells to shape the microenvironment for their own survival and expansion.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8540886
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-85408862021-10-24 Nature vs. Nurture: The Two Opposing Behaviors of Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes in the Tumor Microenvironment Capitani, Nagaja Patrussi, Laura Baldari, Cosima T. Int J Mol Sci Review Similar to Janus, the two-faced god of Roman mythology, the tumor microenvironment operates two opposing and often conflicting activities, on the one hand fighting against tumor cells, while on the other hand, favoring their proliferation, survival and migration to other sites to establish metastases. In the tumor microenvironment, cytotoxic T cells—the specialized tumor-cell killers—also show this dual nature, operating their tumor-cell directed killing activities until they become exhausted and dysfunctional, a process promoted by cancer cells themselves. Here, we discuss the opposing activities of immune cells populating the tumor microenvironment in both cancer progression and anti-cancer responses, with a focus on cytotoxic T cells and on the molecular mechanisms responsible for the efficient suppression of their killing activities as a paradigm of the power of cancer cells to shape the microenvironment for their own survival and expansion. MDPI 2021-10-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8540886/ /pubmed/34681881 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms222011221 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Capitani, Nagaja
Patrussi, Laura
Baldari, Cosima T.
Nature vs. Nurture: The Two Opposing Behaviors of Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes in the Tumor Microenvironment
title Nature vs. Nurture: The Two Opposing Behaviors of Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes in the Tumor Microenvironment
title_full Nature vs. Nurture: The Two Opposing Behaviors of Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes in the Tumor Microenvironment
title_fullStr Nature vs. Nurture: The Two Opposing Behaviors of Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes in the Tumor Microenvironment
title_full_unstemmed Nature vs. Nurture: The Two Opposing Behaviors of Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes in the Tumor Microenvironment
title_short Nature vs. Nurture: The Two Opposing Behaviors of Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes in the Tumor Microenvironment
title_sort nature vs. nurture: the two opposing behaviors of cytotoxic t lymphocytes in the tumor microenvironment
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8540886/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34681881
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms222011221
work_keys_str_mv AT capitaninagaja naturevsnurturethetwoopposingbehaviorsofcytotoxictlymphocytesinthetumormicroenvironment
AT patrussilaura naturevsnurturethetwoopposingbehaviorsofcytotoxictlymphocytesinthetumormicroenvironment
AT baldaricosimat naturevsnurturethetwoopposingbehaviorsofcytotoxictlymphocytesinthetumormicroenvironment