About this Research Topic
Tumors originate and develop within a complex tissue environment characterized by hypoxia, nutrient competition, acidic pH, chronic inflammation, and a dynamic communication between cancer, immune and stromal cells. Within a such tumor microenvironment (TME) cancer and non-cancer cells release soluble factors (metabolites, cytokines, growth factors, exosomes) driving aberrant signaling pathways, phenotypic and metabolic plasticity in tumor and immune cells and regulating their bi-directional interaction.
Metabolic adaptation participates in tumor growth, metastatic dissemination and therapy resistance. The metabolic and signaling crosstalk within TME can also ‘re-educate’ immune cells to acquire pro-tumor activities that synergize by stimulating tumor cells proliferation, immune evasion, survival, migration, and invasion.
In recent years, altered signaling and tumor metabolism have emerged as promising targets for new cancer therapy, which from the one side offers the possibilty to selectively target cancer cells, and from the other side may activate an anti-tumor immune response. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the molecular and biochemical mechanism of how cancer and immune/stromal cells reprogram their metabolism and how they exchange metabolites and soluble factors to gain survival, proliferation, immune evasion, and metastatization. A better characterization of metabolic/signaling pathways and interconnections in TME can lead to the development of new anti-cancer targets in order to improve cancer therapy to re-activate a competent immune response. Interdisciplinary methods including systems and quantitative immunology apply computational, mathematical, and experimental techniques allowing for a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics between the immune system and tumors.
Within this Research Topic, we aim to collect Original Research, Review, Mini-review, and Perspective articles reviewing/discussing the state of art and/or proposing novel insights in basic and translational research focused on any aspects of tumor-host crosstalk at metabolic and signaling level. Areas of interest will include but will not be limited to: cancer metabolic pathways and immune metabolism associated with the TME; systems-level profiling of immune-tumor crosstalk, ROS signaling and redox homeostasis; signaling pathways regulating cancer metabolism, inflammation, and immune metabolism in the TME; signaling and metabolic pathways supporting tumor progression and immune cell exhaustion/anergy; “secretome” including metabolic and soluble factors within TME; pre-clinical study of novel inhibitors impacting on the above described pathways and cellular processes; in vivo (animal models) in vitro (organoids, tissue culture) models to dissect the relationship between tumor and TME for pharmacological research, and drug discovery.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by experimental validation (clinical cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
Metabolic adaptation participates in tumor growth, metastatic dissemination and therapy resistance. The metabolic and signaling crosstalk within TME can also ‘re-educate’ immune cells to acquire pro-tumor activities that synergize by stimulating tumor cells proliferation, immune evasion, survival, migration, and invasion.
In recent years, altered signaling and tumor metabolism have emerged as promising targets for new cancer therapy, which from the one side offers the possibilty to selectively target cancer cells, and from the other side may activate an anti-tumor immune response. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the molecular and biochemical mechanism of how cancer and immune/stromal cells reprogram their metabolism and how they exchange metabolites and soluble factors to gain survival, proliferation, immune evasion, and metastatization. A better characterization of metabolic/signaling pathways and interconnections in TME can lead to the development of new anti-cancer targets in order to improve cancer therapy to re-activate a competent immune response. Interdisciplinary methods including systems and quantitative immunology apply computational, mathematical, and experimental techniques allowing for a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics between the immune system and tumors.
Within this Research Topic, we aim to collect Original Research, Review, Mini-review, and Perspective articles reviewing/discussing the state of art and/or proposing novel insights in basic and translational research focused on any aspects of tumor-host crosstalk at metabolic and signaling level. Areas of interest will include but will not be limited to: cancer metabolic pathways and immune metabolism associated with the TME; systems-level profiling of immune-tumor crosstalk, ROS signaling and redox homeostasis; signaling pathways regulating cancer metabolism, inflammation, and immune metabolism in the TME; signaling and metabolic pathways supporting tumor progression and immune cell exhaustion/anergy; “secretome” including metabolic and soluble factors within TME; pre-clinical study of novel inhibitors impacting on the above described pathways and cellular processes; in vivo (animal models) in vitro (organoids, tissue culture) models to dissect the relationship between tumor and TME for pharmacological research, and drug discovery.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by experimental validation (clinical cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
Keywords: tumor microenvironment, TME, tumor progression, tumor-host crosstalk, cancer cells, immune cells, stromal cells
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.
