bims-stacyt Biomed News
on Metabolism and the paracrine crosstalk between cancer and the organism
Issue of 2021–01–31
two papers selected by
Cristina Muñoz Pinedo, L’Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge



  1. Cancers (Basel). 2021 Jan 22. pii: 401. [Epub ahead of print]13(3):
      Overcoming tumor immunosuppression still represents one ambitious achievement for cancer immunotherapy. Of note, the cytokine TGF-β contributes to immune evasion in multiple cancer types, by feeding the establishment of a tolerogenic environment in the host. Indeed, it fosters the expansion and accumulation of immunosuppressive regulatory cell populations within the tumor microenvironment (TME), where it also activates resident stromal cells and enhances angiogenesis programs. More recently, TGF-β has also turned out as a key metabolic adjuster in tumors orchestrating metabolic pathways in the TME. In this review, we will scrutinize TGF-β-mediated immune and stromal cell crosstalk within the TME, with a primary focus on metabolic programs.
    Keywords:  TGF-β; immune-metabolism; tumor microenvironment
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13030401
  2. Cancers (Basel). 2021 Jan 22. pii: 399. [Epub ahead of print]13(3):
      During the past decades, metabolism and redox imbalance have gained considerable attention in the cancer field. In addition to the well-known Warburg effect occurring in tumor cells, numerous other metabolic deregulations have now been reported. Indeed, metabolic reprograming in cancer is much more heterogeneous than initially thought. In particular, a high diversity of carbon sources used by tumor cells has now been shown to contribute to this metabolic heterogeneity in cancer. Moreover, the molecular mechanisms newly highlighted are multiple and shed light on novel actors. Furthermore, the impact of this metabolic heterogeneity on tumor microenvironment has also been an intense subject of research recently. Here, we will describe the new metabolic pathways newly uncovered in tumor cells. We will also have a particular focus on Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts (CAF), whose identity, function and metabolism have been recently under profound investigation. In that sense, we will discuss about the metabolic crosstalk between tumor cells and CAF.
    Keywords:  CAF; OXPHOS; cancer cell; crosstalk; fibroblast; heterogeneity; metabolism; tumor microenvironment
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13030399