Cigarette toxins increase the risk of pancreas cancer and aggravate cancer if already existing. At the base there is an immune reaction.
Smokers are more at risk of developing pancreas cancer or, if they are affected, to have a faster progression. A study clarified better because this happens and could suggest potential treatments to face this type of cancer in the people who smoke. In the research, published on Cancer Discoveryit emerged that the toxins present in cigarettes bind to the cells causing a deviated immune response that drastically suppresses anticancer immunity. Allowing the pancreas tumor to proliferate in metastases.
Petrol on the fire
A group of scientists from the University of Michigan has given mice with pancreas cancer a harmful chemical chemical present in cigarettes and other environmental pollutants, to understand the sorted effect on the interleuchin-22 (IL22). This substance is part of the cytokines, proteins that act as signals of communication between immune cells, or between these and the various organs and tissues. The IL22 is known to play a role in the tumor micro -room (the set of structures, fabrics, blood vessels) that surround the pancreas cancer and which can affect its growth.
The cigarette smoke toxins dramatically altered the way in which pancreas cancer proliferated, quickly sending it to metastases.
Left without defense
What had tumor growth caused? A clue came from the fact that, in the mice left deliberately without immune defenses, the toxins of cigarette smoke had not facilitated the spread of the tumor. There was therefore the paw of an immune mechanism. And in particular, it has been discovered, of the regulatory T cells (Treg), in charge of preventing excessive or autoimmune inflammatory reactions, but which can mitigate immunity compared to cancer.
«These cells have the ability both to produce IL22, and to drastically suppress any anticancer immunity. It is a two -pointed attack. When we have eliminated all Treg cells from these mice, we reversed the entire ability of the chemical of the cigarette to grow the tumor “explains Timothy L. Frankel, professor of oncological surgery and co-director of the center for pancreatic cancer of the University of Michigan, who coordinated the study.
Ideas for new therapies
The results were confirmed on human immune cell crops and on cells of patients with pancreas cancer: among these, smokers were more tree cells than non -smokers.
The team has also shown that by inhibiting the chemicals of cigarettes that bind to the AL22, the tumors were reduced.
This could be a possible way to cure smokers suffering from pancreas tumors in a more targeted way. Another plans instead of trying to inhibit the suppressive activity of Treg cells, so as to restore part of the natural anticancer immunity and exploit it in therapies.
