{"id":72363,"date":"2025-07-18T10:14:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T10:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/72363\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T10:14:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T10:14:10","slug":"how-prostate-cancer-turns-immune-cells-into-traitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/72363\/","title":{"rendered":"How prostate cancer turns immune cells into traitors"},"content":{"rendered":"

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You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license.<\/p>\n

Scientists have revealed how certain immune cells may be quietly helping prostate cancer grow\u2014and how blocking them could help the body fight back.<\/p>\n

The study in Molecular Cancer Research<\/a>\u00a0identifies a group of cells called macrophages that, instead of protecting the body, appear to shield tumors from attack and promote tumor metastasis.<\/p>\n

These cells are typically the immune system\u2019s housekeeping crew\u2014engulfing dead cells and responding to infection\u2014but in prostate cancer, some are reprogrammed by tumors to suppress the body\u2019s immune responses and promote their own spread.<\/p>\n

Led by Assistant Professor Shenglin Mei of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Cancer Research Center in Washington, DC, the study focused on tumor-associated macrophages, in advanced prostate cancer\u2014particularly in the bone, where the disease is most deadly and difficult to treat.<\/p>\n

Among four macrophage<\/a> subtypes identified, one stood out: a group marked by the proteins SPP1 and TREM2. These cells were found clustered inside tumor regions \u2014 not in surrounding tissue\u2014and were linked to blood vessel growth, impaired immune activity, and the spread of cancer in the body.<\/p>\n

Using spatial analysis\u2014a technique that maps where cells are located within a tumor\u2014researchers found that inflammatory, potentially tumor-fighting macrophages tended to remain outside tumor boundaries, but a specific subtype that produces the troublesome SPP1 and TREM2 proteins was found deep inside the tumors, in close contact with cancer cells.<\/p>\n

\u201cMacrophages often aid in fighting cancers,\u201d Mei says. \u201cHowever, certain subtypes foster an immune-suppressive environment, hindering the body\u2019s natural defenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

In follow-up experiments, Mei and his colleagues tested whether blocking these cells could improve treatment. In mice with prostate tumors, they used an antibody to block the SPP1 protein\u2014and found that tumors were more vulnerable to immunotherapy.<\/p>\n

While immune checkpoint inhibitors<\/a> have worked in many other cancers, they\u2019ve failed in prostate cancer. But in this study, combining anti-SPP1 treatment with immunotherapy significantly boosted the immune response.<\/p>\n

\u201cTargeting SPP1\/TREM2 tumor associated macrophages reversed immunosuppression, allowing more T cells\u2014the immune system\u2019s primary defenders\u2014to infiltrate the tumor, resulting in slowed cancer progression,\u201d Mei says.<\/p>\n

Prostate cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in the United States and globally, with an estimated 1.47 million new cases worldwide in 2022, according to the World Cancer Research Fund.<\/p>\n

Scientists have long suspected that the tumor microenvironment\u2014the mix of immune cells, blood vessels, and signaling molecules around a tumor\u2014plays a role in helping cancer escape detection. But this new study reveals, in greater detail, which cells are involved and how they\u2019re working.<\/p>\n

To make this discovery, Mei\u2019s lab combined advanced techniques\u2014including single-cell RNA sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, and NanoString digital spatial profiling\u2014to map immune cell activity and location.<\/p>\n

They also analyzed large-scale, publicly available datasets from hundreds of prostate cancer patients, ensuring their findings held up across human samples, mouse models, and disease stages.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about more than just one cell type,\u201d says Mei, who also has an appointment with the biomedical sciences and pathobiology department in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about using spatial and single-cell analysis together to uncover vulnerabilities that we couldn\u2019t see before.\u201d<\/p>\n

This work builds directly on Mei\u2019s earlier studies\u2014a 2021 Cancer Cell paper that revealed an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment in bone metastases, and a 2023 Nature Communications study that mapped immune cell patterns in primary tumors.<\/p>\n

The new study expands on that foundation, integrating old and new datasets to reveal a previously hidden player in prostate cancer progression.<\/p>\n

Additional researchers from Virginia Tech, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of Chicago, and Sweden\u2019s Karolinska Institute contributed to the work.<\/p>\n

Support for the project came from the Prostate Cancer Foundation, which awarded Mei a Young Investigator Award, and by the National Institutes of Health. Mei is among a cohort of new cancer research faculty at the research institute whose recruitment was supported by the Red Gates Foundation.<\/p>\n

Source: Virginia Tech<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Share this Article You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license. Scientists have…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":72364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[235,210,50599,50600,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-72363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-cancer","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-immune-systems","11":"tag-prostate-cancer","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114873713511313315","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}