胃癌的肿瘤微环境研究进展

肿瘤微环境是决定肿瘤细胞行为的主要影响因素,有别于正常细胞与其周围组织所形成的微环境,组织缺氧和酸中毒、间质高压形成、大量生长因子和蛋白水解酶的产生及免疫炎性反应等构成了肿瘤组织代谢环境的生物学特征,这种特性在肿瘤的发生、进展、转移中扮演重要的角色。胃癌早期症状不典型、转移迅速、死亡率高,是消化系统最常见的恶性肿瘤,目前,关于肿瘤微环境的研究尚处于起步阶段,对胃癌肿瘤微环境的研究有助于我们进一步认识胃癌发生发展的机制,并为临床诊断、治疗胃癌提供依据。因此,本文就近年来在胃癌肿瘤微环境方面的研究进展作一综述。     

Mouse Ovarian Cancer Models Recapitulate the Human Tumor Microenvironment and Patient Response to Treatment

1. Download : Download high-res image (125KB)
2. Download : Download full-size image

     

肿瘤相关成纤维细胞与肿瘤微环境

肿瘤的发展过程与肿瘤微环境密切相关,而肿瘤相关成纤维细胞（CAFs）是上述微环境中最主要的宿主细胞,CAFs是一类不同细胞源性的细胞群,可来源于多种细胞包括静止的成纤维细胞、上皮细胞、内皮细胞和间质干细胞的分化过程。体内和体外生物学实验均证实,成纤维细胞在肿瘤微环境中并不是被动的对肿瘤发展提供支持,而是发挥了至关重要的作用,所以靶向CAFs有望成为肿瘤治疗的新方向,对CAFs相关分子标记物和分子事件的进一步探索将为抗肿瘤的临床治疗提供新的思路。本文将对CAFs的来源以及CAFs对肿瘤发生发展、转移及VEGF耐受等方面的作用做一综述。     

肿瘤相关成纤维细胞与肿瘤微环境

肿瘤的发展过程与肿瘤微环境密切相关,而肿瘤相关成纤维细胞(CAFs)是上述微环境中最主要的宿主细胞,CAFs是一类不同细胞源性的细胞群,可来源于多种细胞包括静止的成纤维细胞、上皮细胞、内皮细胞和间质干细胞的分化过程。体内和体外生物学实验均证实,成纤维细胞在肿瘤微环境中并不是被动的对肿瘤发展提供支持,而是发挥了至关重要的作用,所以靶向CAFs有望成为肿瘤治疗的新方向,对CAFs相关分子标记物和分子事件的进一步探索将为抗肿瘤的临床治疗提供新的思路。本文将对CAFs的来源以及CAFs对肿瘤发生发展、转移及VEGF耐受等方面的作用做一综述。     

外泌体环状RNA在肿瘤微环境中的研究进展

外泌体是细胞分泌的30～150 nm的细胞外囊泡,在肿瘤微环境(tumor microenvironment,TME)中介导细胞间通讯.环状RNA (circular RNA,circRNAs)是一类由前体mRNA (precursor mRNA,pre-mRNA)反向剪接生成的非编码RNA(non-coding RNA,ncRNA),在外泌体中富集且表达稳定.本文主要讨论外泌体起源和circRNAs在外泌体中的分选调控机制,阐述外泌体circRNAs在肿瘤微环境各个阶段中的作用与机制,包括血管生成、EMT、耐药等.最后,本文探讨外泌体circRNAs作为肿瘤标志物和治疗靶点的临床应用前景与价值.     

肝细胞癌的微环境研究进展

越来越多的研究表明,肿瘤细胞与其周围微环境的交互作用是肿瘤发生、上皮间质转化、肿瘤浸润和转移的关键调节因素．肝细胞癌的微环境可以分为细胞组分和非细胞组分．主要的细胞组分包含：肝星形细胞、肿瘤相关的纤维母细胞、免疫细胞和肝窦内皮细胞等．非细胞组分包含：胞外基质蛋白、酶类、各种生长因子和炎症因子等．综述了近年来肝细胞癌的微环境研究进展,分别从细胞组分和非细胞组分及其之间的相互作用角度对肝细胞癌微环境作一介绍．     

综述: 肿瘤微环境与免疫治疗研究进展

肿瘤的发生和发展包括了一系列复杂的生物学过程,其中与免疫系统的相互抗衡,直接决定了这场健康保卫战的成败．由“种子与土壤”学说展开的肿瘤微环境的研究,为解开肿瘤形成与侵袭转移之谜提供了新视角,为肿瘤免疫治疗的临床应用提供了理论依据．本文综述了肿瘤微环境的主要成分及其介导的免疫耐受,及肿瘤免疫治疗的研究现状．     

微流控技术对细胞微环境的模拟及应用研究

细胞微环境是一个多因素组成的、时空可变的复杂集合,对细胞的行为和功能发挥起着决定性作用。但传统的细胞生物学研究方法很难在体外为细胞提供这样一个复杂的、微尺度的生长环境,致使许多体外研究结果与在体情况相差甚远。近年来,微流控技术与细胞培养技术的结合为细胞微环境的模拟和控制提供了可能。文章通过提炼微环境的重要参数及其特征,介绍微流控技术是如何满足这些参数的需求,探讨了微流控技术在体外模拟细胞微环境的可行性,并总结了近年来该技术在微环境体外模拟研究中取得的成果,对微流控技术在细胞微环境构建中的发展方向和应用前景进行了展望。     

靶向肿瘤微环境的CAR-T治疗研究*

癌症仍然是现阶段威胁人类健康的一大难题,随着医学的发展,癌症治疗方法除传统方法:手术、放疗、化疗,还可以采用免疫疗法。目前,癌症免疫疗法受到广泛关注,但在应用方面具有许多局限性,如 PD-1/PD-L1 抑制剂,在应用的过程中会出现获得性耐药现象,因此细胞免疫疗法(chimeric antigen receptor T cell, CAR-T) 应运而生,成为弥补免疫检查点抑制剂(immune checkpoint inhibitors, ICIs)和单克隆抗体药物缺陷的新兴治疗方式,简要介绍了 CAR-T 免疫疗法的产生、应用及对 TME 相关靶点的研究进展,为后续研究提供一定的思路。     

靶向肿瘤微环境的CAR-T治疗研究*

癌症仍然是现阶段威胁人类健康的一大难题,随着医学的发展,癌症治疗方法除传统方法:手术、放疗、化疗,还可以采用免疫疗法。目前,癌症免疫疗法受到广泛关注,但在应用方面具有许多局限性,如 PD-1/PD-L1 抑制剂,在应用的过程中会出现获得性耐药现象,因此细胞免疫疗法(chimeric antigen receptor T cell, CAR-T) 应运而生,成为弥补免疫检查点抑制剂(immune checkpoint inhibitors, ICIs)和单克隆抗体药物缺陷的新兴治疗方式,简要介绍了 CAR-T 免疫疗法的产生、应用及对 TME 相关靶点的研究进展,为后续研究提供一定的思路。     

肿瘤微环境中上皮–间质转化与肿瘤干细胞的调控

肿瘤微环境是一个复杂的组织样结构,具有丰富的表型和功能异质性。不同浓度的趋化因子、细胞因子与组成肿瘤微环境的细胞间相互作用,可激活上皮–间质转化(epithelial-mesenchymal transition,EMT)相关的信号通路及控制肿瘤干细胞(cancer stem cells,CSCs)的生成。EMT的异常激活会促进肿瘤细胞的可塑性,赋予上皮细胞间充质特性,并与癌细胞获得侵袭性的特征密切相关。CSCs是一类具有高致瘤潜能的细胞群,其能很容易地适应周围环境的变化,与肿瘤内其他细胞相比具有较强的抗药性。该文对肿瘤微环境中EMT与CSC的作用机制及相关信号通路的研究进展进行综述。     

黏着斑激酶与肿瘤微环境

黏着斑激酶（focal adhesion kinase, FAK）是一种胞质非受体酪氨酸激酶。FAK和肿瘤密切相关,在多种癌细胞中高表达,促进癌细胞的发生、生长、存活、增殖、粘附、转移和侵袭以及血管生成等过程。肿瘤微环境包括肿瘤细胞、周围血管、免疫细胞、纤维母细胞、内皮细胞、信号分子和细胞外基质,它对癌症的发展和恶化具有重要作用。肿瘤细胞可以通过分泌细胞外信号影响微环境,使其有利于肿瘤生存和发展|肿瘤微环境中的基质细胞能通过产生趋化因子、基质降解酶和生长因子促进肿瘤侵袭和转移。本文综述肿瘤微环境在癌症发生发展过程中的作用及FAK在肿瘤微环境中的调控作用,为肿瘤疾病的治疗提供新思路。     

Neutrophil-Derived Proteases in the Microenvironment of Pancreatic Cancer -Active Players in Tumor Progression

A hallmark of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the fibro-inflammatory microenvironment, consisting of activated pancreatic stellate cells, extracellular matrix proteins, and a variety of inflammatory cells, such as T cells, macrophages, or neutrophils. Tumor-infiltrating immune cells, which are found in nearly all cancers, including PDAC, often fail to eliminate the tumor, but conversely can promote its progression by altering the tumor microenvironment. Pancreatic cancer cells are able to attract polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) via tumor secreted chemokines and in human PDAC, PMN infiltrates can be observed in the vicinity of tumor cells and in the desmoplastic tumor stroma, which correlate with undifferentiated tumor growth and poor prognosis. The behavior of tumor-infiltrating neutrophils in the tumor micromilieu is not yet understood at a mechanistic level. It has been shown that PMN have the potential to kill tumor cells, either directly or by antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity, but on the other side various adverse effects of PMN, such as promotion of aggressive tumor growth with epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and increased metastatic potential, have been described. Recent therapeutic approaches for PDAC focus not only the tumor cell itself, but also elements of the tumor microenvironment. Therefore, the role of PMN and their derived products (e.g. cytokines, proteases) as a new vein for a therapeutic target should be critically evaluated in this context. This review summarizes the current understanding of the interplay between proteases of tumor-infiltrating neutrophils and pancreatic tumor cells and elements of the desmoplastic stroma.     

CPNE8 Promotes Gastric Cancer Metastasis by Modulating Focal Adhesion Pathway and Tumor Microenvironment

Little is known about the oncogenic role or biological function of copine Ⅷ (CPNE8) in gastric cancer (GC). Based on TCGA database, we screened for CPNE8 and analyzed the expression of CPNE8 in GC. The correlations between CPNE8 and clinical features were analyzed using TCGA and GEO databases. The prognostic value of CPNE8 was assessed using Cox analysis and Kaplan-Meier curves. The results showed that increased expression of CPNE8 was positively correlated with metastasis and can be considered an independent prognostic risk factor for poor survival. We found that CPNE8 can promote cell proliferation, migration, and invasiveness in GC using in vitro and in vivo experiments. Our study demonstrated that CPNE8 promotes tumor progression via regulation of focal adhesion, and these effects can be rescued by focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibitor GSK2256098 or knockdown of FAK. In addition, CPNE8 was correlated significantly with the infiltration of cancer-associated fibroblasts and immune cells, as demonstrated by various algorithms, and high CPNE8 expression predicted poor efficacy of immune checkpoint therapy. Our findings suggest that CPNE8 modulates focal adhesion and tumor microenvironment to promote GC progression and invasiveness and could serve as a novel prognostic biomarker in GC.     

Proteomic Profiling of Human Prostate Cancer-associated Fibroblasts (CAF) Reveals LOXL2-dependent Regulation of the Tumor Microenvironment

1. Download : Download high-res image (105KB)
2. Download : Download full-size image

Highlights

• •Quantitative (phoshpo)proteome of primary cell cultures of patient-matched prostate CAF and NPF.
• •Key CAF-associated proteins validated using orthogonal methodologies.
• •LOXL2 inhibitors D-penicillamine and PXS-S2A impaired CAF migration and ECM alignment.
• •Pre-treatment with LOXL2 inhibitors impaired migratory capacity of RWPE-2 cells in co-culture.

     

蛋白质翻译后修饰SUMOylation在肿瘤微环境中的功能作用

目前肿瘤仍然是人类生存中无法克服的一大难题,治疗方案多种多样,但还未找到一种行之有效的方法。随着越来越多的研究发现,人们把治疗肿瘤的目光投向了一种新的领域——肿瘤微环境（tumor microenvironment,TME）,指癌细胞周围各种基质细胞的动态和复杂的环境。TME是宿主免疫系统和肿瘤之间的关键交互区域,TME内的细胞相互影响并与癌细胞相互作用以影响癌细胞的侵袭、肿瘤的生长和转移,是治疗癌症的一个全新的方向。在TME复杂的环境中,蛋白质的翻译后修饰（post-translational modification,PTMs）被证明在TME中发挥着重要的作用。PTMs通过调节蛋白质的结构、空间定位和相互作用调控其功能。在PTMs中有一种可逆的翻译后修饰被称为SUMOylation,是通过小泛素样修饰物（small ubiquitin-like modifier,SUMO）靶向赖氨酸残基修饰的翻译后修饰,是细胞过程中普遍存在的调控机制。SUMOylation广泛参与致癌、DNA损伤反应、癌细胞增殖、转移和凋亡,在TME中发挥举足轻重的作用。本综述旨在总结蛋白质的SUMOylation动态修饰对多种免疫细胞的影响,从而探究其在TME中发挥的作用。     

骨细胞微环境仿生模拟技术

骨细胞是生长于骨组织中的重要功能性细胞,承载着力学感知、骨重建平衡、机体矿物质代谢和内稳态调节等多种重要功能.骨陷窝-骨小管网络系统为骨细胞生长和功能发挥提供了稳定的结构微环境,骨基质的主要成分Ⅰ型胶原蛋白和羟基磷灰石是骨细胞黏附、细胞与细胞以及细胞与细胞外基质相互作用的生化微环境基础.而骨细胞多种生理功能的发挥离不开其对周围力学微环境变化的感知与响应.此外,骨细胞对周围环境非常敏感,微环境结构、生化组成和力学刺激的变化会对骨细胞结构和功能产生较大影响.因此,在微环境基础上研究骨细胞的结构和功能,是阐明骨细胞力学感知机制、发现骨细胞新的生物学功能的前提.然而,骨陷窝-骨小管网络系统复杂的结构和坚硬的质地,给在体研究带来了很大的困难.体外构建骨细胞仿生微环境成为骨细胞结构功能研究的必经之路.本文系统介绍了骨细胞的结构、生化和力学微环境,回顾了体外骨细胞微环境仿生模拟技术的最新进展,旨在为骨基础生物学、组织工程和再生医学的发展提供参考.     

TJP1 Contributes to Tumor Progression through Supporting Cell-Cell Aggregation and Communicating with Tumor Microenvironment in Leiomyosarcoma

Leiomyosarcoma (LMS) is a mesenchymal malignancy with a complex karyotype. Despite accumulated evidence, the factors contributing to the development of LMS are unclear. Here, we investigated the role of tight-junction protein 1 (TJP1), a membrane-associated intercellular barrier protein during the development of LMS and the tumor microenvironment. We orthotopically transplanted SK-LMS-1 cells and their derivatives in terms of TJP1 expression by intramuscular injection, such as SK-LMS-1 Sh-Control cells and SK-LMS-1 Sh-TJP1. We observed robust tumor growth in mice transplanted with LMS cell lines expressing TJP1 while no tumor mass was found in mice transplanted with SK-LMS-1 Sh-TJP1 cells with silenced TJP1 expression. Tissues from mice were stained and further analyzed to clarify the effects of TJP1 expression on tumor development and the tumor microenvironment. To identify the TJP1-dependent factors important in the development of LMS, genes with altered expression were selected in SK-LMS-1 cells such as cyclinD1, CSF1 and so on. The top 10% of highly expressed genes in LMS tissues were obtained from public databases. Further analysis revealed two clusters related to cell proliferation and the tumor microenvironment. Furthermore, integrated analyses of the gene expression networks revealed correlations among TJP1, CSF1 and CTLA4 at the mRNA level, suggesting a possible role for TJP1 in the immune environment. Taken together, these results imply that TJP1 contributes to the development of sarcoma by proliferation through modulating cell-cell aggregation and communication through cytokines in the tumor microenvironment and might be a beneficial therapeutic target.     

NK Cells Stimulate Recruitment of cDC1 into the Tumor Microenvironment Promoting Cancer Immune Control

1. Download high-res image (288KB)
2. Download full-size image

     

MAME Models for 4D Live-cell Imaging of Tumor: Microenvironment Interactions that Impact Malignant Progression

We have developed 3D coculture models, which we term MAME (mammary architecture and microenvironment engineering), and used them for live-cell imaging in real-time of cell:cell interactions. Our overall goal was to develop models that recapitulate the architecture of preinvasive breast lesions to study their progression to an invasive phenotype. Specifically, we developed models to analyze interactions among pre-malignant breast epithelial cell variants and other cell types of the tumor microenvironment that have been implicated in enhancing or reducing the progression of preinvasive breast epithelial cells to invasive ductal carcinomas. Other cell types studied to date are myoepithelial cells, fibroblasts, macrophages and blood and lymphatic microvascular endothelial cells. In addition to the MAME models, which are designed to recapitulate the cellular interactions within the breast during cancer progression, we have developed comparable models for the progression of prostate cancers. Here we illustrate the procedures for establishing the 3D cocultures along with the use of live-cell imaging and a functional proteolysis assay to follow the transition of cocultures of breast ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) cells and fibroblasts to an invasive phenotype over time, in this case over twenty-three days in culture. The MAME cocultures consist of multiple layers. Fibroblasts are embedded in the bottom layer of type I collagen. On that is placed a layer of reconstituted basement membrane (rBM) on which DCIS cells are seeded. A final top layer of 2% rBM is included and replenished with every change of media. To image proteolysis associated with the progression to an invasive phenotype, we use dye-quenched (DQ) fluorescent matrix proteins (DQ-collagen I mixed with the layer of collagen I and DQ-collagen IV mixed with the middle layer of rBM) and observe live cultures using confocal microscopy. Optical sections are captured, processed and reconstructed in 3D with Volocity visualization software. Over the course of 23 days in MAME cocultures, the DCIS cells proliferate and coalesce into large invasive structures. Fibroblasts migrate and become incorporated into these invasive structures. Fluorescent proteolytic fragments of the collagens are found in association with the surface of DCIS structures, intracellularly, and also dispersed throughout the surrounding matrix. Drugs that target proteolytic, chemokine/cytokine and kinase pathways or modifications in the cellular composition of the cocultures can reduce the invasiveness, suggesting that MAME models can be used as preclinical screens for novel therapeutic approaches.