Emerging roles of purinergic signaling in anti-cancer therapy resistance

Cancer is a complex disease with a rapid growing incidence and often characterized by a poor prognosis. Although impressive advances have been made in cancer treatments, resistance to therapy remains a critical obstacle for the improvement of patients outcome. Current treatment approaches as chemo-, radio-, and immuno-therapy deeply affect the tumor microenvironment (TME), inducing an extensive selective pressure on cancer cells through the activation of the immune system, the induction of cell death and the release of inflammatory and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPS), including nucleosides (adenosine) and nucleotides (ATP and ADP). To survive in this hostile environment, resistant cells engage a variety of mitigation pathways related to metabolism, DNA repair, stemness, inflammation and resistance to apoptosis. In this context, purinergic signaling exerts a pivotal role being involved in mitochondrial function, stemness, inflammation and cancer development. The activity of ATP and adenosine released in the TME depend upon the repertoire of purinergic P2 and adenosine receptors engaged, as well as, by the expression of ectonucleotidases (CD39 and CD73) on tumor, immune and stromal cells. Besides its well established role in the pathogenesis of several tumors and in host–tumor interaction, purinergic signaling has been recently shown to be profoundly involved in the development of therapy resistance. In this review we summarize the current advances on the role of purinergic signaling in response and resistance to anti-cancer therapies, also describing the translational applications of combining conventional anticancer interventions with therapies targeting purinergic signaling.