Targeting Developmental Pathways in Inflammation and Disease

About this Research Topic

Background

A broad range of organisms, from Drosophila and C. elegans to humans, share similar conserved developmental pathways (DP) and signaling regulatory circuits, but in different combinations and timing. This developmental progression is the result of interacting signalling pathways, such as Hedgehog, Notch, and WNT, that coordinate proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation, and a flow of events necessary for a cell to reach a mature stage. The same pathways regulate self-renewal in embryonal and adult stem cells, interact with inflammation-related pathways, and are important in the generation of a fully-competent immune cell. Infectious agents, such as oncogenic viruses can interact with DP genes to impair the inflammatory response and evade immune responses. Additionally, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are also emerging as important regulators of DP genes.

Although we are witnessing exciting advances in biological fields with deep sequencing techniques and Big Data availability to unveil pathobiological networks, it remains unclear how local changes in the extracellular milieu modulate intra- and intercellular pathways. Specifically, how DP genes are related and modulated by these changes. More investigation is required to reveal the mechanisms that drive the interactions between different subsets of immune cells with tumor or pathogen-infected cells. To this end, there is enough space to explore the interplay between immune checkpoints (ICs) and DPs that might lead to inflammation, apoptosis, metastasis, and immune escape. Another growing field focuses on how ncRNAs exploit transcription factors or other genes to orchestrate the intertwined signaling of DPs.

In this Research Topic, we focus on the highly evolutionarily conserved network of DPs that regulate cell homeostasis and body morphogenesis, with particular focus on cancer-related studies. Harnessing recent and outstanding advances in the vast field of DPs will help us to identify and exploit common deregulated genes in different diseases to develop more effective therapeutic targets.

We welcome Original Research and Review articles falling under the following topics:
• Developmental signals and oncogenic viruses in immune cell homeostasis.
• Developmental pathways in neoplastic cell cross-talk.
• Developmental pathways in immune response during inflammation.
• Developmental pathways and oncogenic viruses cross-signaling in immune response.
• Developmental pathways in cell-stroma connection (in embryo and tumor development).
• Non-coding RNAs interacting with developmental pathways and immune regulatory pathways.

Keywords: Developmental Pathways, Infectious Agents, Immune Checkpoints, ncRNAs, Tumor Microenvironment

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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