Scientists propose a fresh look at the role of ferroptosis in the development of cancer
Professor at the university of Ghent in Belgium, the cut, biological and biomedical research institute at the university of chief researcher dmitry Chris and German scientist professor marcus Conrad, jose pedro center, professor friedman recently in the journal nature reviews cancer published an article, according to the data of WoS, one of the highest ranked journals, in 223 journals of the class for the second line of oncology, impact factor of 42.78.
Despite major advances in medicine, cancer remains the second leading cause of death worldwide (who, 2018). In addition to cancer immunotherapy, one of the main ways to destroy cancer cells is to initiate cell death through chemotherapy and radiation. In their paper, the researchers offer a new perspective on the role of iron toxicity, a form of cell death, in the development of cancer.
Dmitri Krysko believes that iron chain cancer cells can stimulate the immune system and lead to the activation of anti-cancer immunity, thus improving the effectiveness of anti-cancer treatment. In this case, the so-called immune protocell death mechanism kicks in. "On the other hand, according to published data, the death of tumor cells from iron deficiency can lead to the suppression of anti-tumor immune response, leading to the development and progression of human tumors." As a result, tumour cells that die of iron poisoning have a "double-edged sword", says Dmitri Krysko, an Dmitri Krysko biologist.
Cell death is an important biological process and plays an active role in human embryonic development and the pathogenesis of various diseases. Every day, about 100 billion cells die in the human body. Cell death is controlled at molecular, genetic, and biochemical levels. Normally, dead cells are absorbed by cells of the body's immune system without over-activating it.
However, the development of many diseases is associated with an imbalance between cell death and survival. Excessive or intensive death of one-time cells in the body, or cells are highly sensitive to death, can cause inflammation, leading to the occurrence of various neurodegenerative diseases. It is noteworthy that the development of resistance to cell death is directly related to the development of cancer and the subsequent failure of anticancer treatments.
Modern anti-tumor treatments aim to trigger the death of cancer cells, which, when they die, activate the immune system. Over the past few decades, scientists around the world have been actively studying the molecular mechanisms of cell death and how cancer cells interact with the human immune system.
Iron poisoning is one of 12 types of cell death regulation discovered only in 2012. Different from other regulatory cell death, such as apoptosis and necrosis, iron poisoning is caused by the failure of the antioxidant defense mechanism of cells, leading to the uncontrolled lipid peroxidation of cell membrane and the death of cancer cells. Cancer cells that die of iron send signals that interact with cells of the body's immune system, leading to suppression of the immune response and progression of the tumor, or stimulating an anti-tumor immune response. This indicates the immunogenicity of cell death and leads to the involvement of the immune system in fighting tumors.
Professor Krysko continued: "in this paper, we present a fundamental new concept to understand the interactions between immune system cells and tumor cells that die from iron dependence, and discuss the new role of iron dependence in cancer development and treatment."
Therefore, the authors present some arguments that emphasize the ambiguous role of iron sagging in cancer treatment. Further research in this paper will help answer the question: "is iron poisoning an immunogenic or immunosuppressive form of cell death?"
The authors argue for another important aspect. This is related to the fact that tumor cells often acquire resistance to apoptosis during anti-cancer treatment. Apoptosis is a type of cell death most often triggered by modern chemotherapy and radiation treatments. This leads to decreased therapeutic effectiveness and cancer progression. In this case, it is important to use new therapies aimed at initiating alternative types of regulatory cell death.
Therefore, the initiation of iron ion action may help to overcome the resistance of cells to death and improve the effect of anti-tumor therapy. At this stage, it is too early to talk about commercializing these results, as more basic research, including mouse models, is needed. It is necessary to carry out detailed tests and studies on the feasibility of iron sagging so that this method can be popularized in future clinical applications.
"I would like to point out that in 2018, unu launched a unique project to study immunoblast death in gliomas, some of the most aggressive and metastatic brain tumors," said professor Krysko.
Lobachevsky research professor at the university of Dmitri Krysko and maria Vedunova, Ph.D., director of UNN biological and biomedical research institute is working on the immunogenicity of the glioma cell death 18th the framework of Russian science foundation project - 15-00279 "mechanism of cell death neuro - oncological photodynamic therapy of the disease."
In vitro and in vivo scientific experiments were carried out in the mouse model. These studies are based on synergies and the many years of experience accumulated by the team of immunoprimal cell death (led by professor Dmitri Krysko) and photodynamic therapy for neurotumors (led by Dr. Maria Vedunova).
