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REVIEW article

Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Cancer Cell Biology
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2024.1460544

Insights and Therapeutic Advances in Pancreatic Cancer: The Role of Electron Microscopy in Decoding the Tumor Microenvironment

Provisionally accepted
Hong Dai Hong Dai 1*Xingxuan Chen Xingxuan Chen 2Jiawen Yang Jiawen Yang 3Yuying Wang Yuying Wang 2Rodrigo A. Loiola Rodrigo A. Loiola 4Aiping Lyu Aiping Lyu 2Kenneth C. Cheung Kenneth C. Cheung 2*
  • 1 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR China
  • 2 Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR China
  • 3 Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
  • 4 Oroxcell, Romainville, France

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal cancers, with a 5-year overall survival rate of less than 10%. Despite the development of novel therapies in recent decades, current chemotherapeutic strategies offer limited clinical benefits due to the high heterogeneity and desmoplastic tumor microenvironment (TME) of pancreatic cancer as well as inefficient drug penetration. Antibody-and nucleic acid-based targeting therapies have emerged as strong contenders in pancreatic cancer drug discovery. Numerous studies have shown that these strategies can significantly enhance drug accumulation in tumors while reducing systemic toxicity. Additionally, electron microscopy (EM) has been a critical tool for high-resolution analysis of the TME, providing insights into the ultrastructural changes associated with pancreatic cancer progression and treatment responses. This review traces the current and technological advances in EM, particularly the development of ultramicrotomy and improvements in sample preparation that have facilitated the detailed visualization of cellular and extracellular components of the TME. This review highlights the contribution of EM in assessing the efficacy of therapeutic agents, from revealing apoptotic changes to characterizing the effects of novel compounds like ionophore antibiotic gramicidin A on cellular ultrastructures. Moreover, the review delves into the potential of EM in studying the interactions between the tumor microbiome and cancer cell migration, as well as in aiding the development of targeted therapies like antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and aptamer-drug conjugates (ApDCs).

    Keywords: Pancreatic Cancer, Tumor Microenvironment, EM, Antibody-drug conjugates, Aptamerdrug conjugates

    Received: 06 Jul 2024; Accepted: 23 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Dai, Chen, Yang, Wang, Loiola, Lyu and Cheung. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Hong Dai, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR China
    Kenneth C. Cheung, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.