Immunotherapy holds promise in cancer treatment, but pancreatic cancer remains resistant to current drugs, proving lethal for 90% of patients. To combat this, researchers seek new targets like cancer stem cells (CSCs), which drive tumor initiation, metastasis, and treatment resistance.
A study by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), published in Gut, reveals that pancreatic cancer stem cells exploit the antibacterial protein PGLYRP1 to evade the immune system. Removing this protein allows immune defenses to recognize and kill tumor cells, potentially leading to new immunotherapies targeting the root cause of pancreatic cancer.
This study was co-led by Bruno Sainz from the Sols-Morreale Biomedical Research Institute and Ramón y Cajal Institute for Health Research, Christopher Heeschen from Candiolo Cancer Institute in Italy, and Susana García Silva from the Spanish National Cancer Research Center. Over a decade, they identified CSCs in mouse models, noting their role in disease recurrence post-treatment.
Their collaboration identified PGLYRP1 as a key factor in immune evasion by CSCs. Sainz explained that eliminating PGLYRP1 from tumor cells prompts an immune response, preventing tumor formation and metastasis. The team is developing therapies to block or eliminate this protein, aiming to enhance current treatments.
As reported by Medical Xpress, Juan Carlos López-Gil, the study’s first author, discovered that CSCs produce PGLYRP1 to block tumor necrosis factor receptors, preventing cell death. García-Silva emphasized the need to understand how tumor cells hijack physiological processes to re-educate the tumor environment for an effective immune response.