Tumor Hijacks Macrophages & Microbiota Through Extracellular Vesicles

News Release, International Society of Microbiota, France – March 23, 2022

The tumor microenvironment (TME) is a biological system with sophisticated constituents where tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and microbiota are dominant components. The phenotypic and functional changes of TAMs are widely considered to be related to most tumor progressions, and the chronic colonization of pathogenic microbes and opportunistic pathogens accounts for the generation and development of tumors.

As messengers of cell-to-cell communication, tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (TDEVs) can transfer various malignant factors, regulating physiological and pathological changes in the recipients and affecting TAMs and microbes in the TME.

The crosstalk among tumor cells, macrophages, and microbiota remain elusive, only few studies have focused on how TDEVs act as an intermediary. Jiang et al, reviewed how tumor cells recruit and domesticate macrophages and microbes through extracellular vehicles and how hijacked macrophages and microbiota interact with tumor-promoting feedback, achieving a reciprocal coexistence under the TME and working together to facilitate tumor progression. 

Tumor hijacks macrophages and microbiota through extracellular vesicles

Tumor cells recruit and foster the survival and migration of microbiota via TDEVs.

In this review, a general field of vision on the cell-to-cell interactions was provided:

  1. Tumor recruits accelerate the phenotypic transformation of macrophages through EVs, and the defected macrophages promote tumor progression through malignant feedback.
  2. Tumor recruits that transfer malignant characteristics to microbes via EVs, and the tumor also facilitates the survival, migration, and replication of microbes. In turn, the microbes generate tumor-promoting feedback to favor tumor progression.
  3. Hijacking effects that lead to the reciprocal coexistence of macrophages and the microbiota. Therefore, the components in the TME that can interact with each other and form a dynamic loop that may contribute to tumor progression were highlighted. However, there are undoubtedly many more unknown interplays between tumor cells and other factors, and more effort is needed to reveal them.

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Read the full review here.


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