Crosstalk of nervous and immune systems in pancreatic cancer

Fei-Fei Huang; Wen-Hui Cui; Lan-Yue Ma; Qi Chen; Yang Liu

doi:10.3389/fcell.2023.1309738

Crosstalk of nervous and immune systems in pancreatic cancer

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2023 Nov 30:11:1309738. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2023.1309738. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Fei-Fei Huang^#¹, Wen-Hui Cui^#¹, Lan-Yue Ma^#^{2

3

4}, Qi Chen^{2

3}, Yang Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ The Innovation Centre of Ministry of Education for Development and Diseases, School of Medicine, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.
² Center for Cell Lineage and Development, CAS Key Laboratory of Regenerative Biology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, GIBH-HKU Guangdong-Hong Kong Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Research Centre, GIBH-CUHK Joint Research Laboratory on Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
³ China-New Zealand Joint Laboratory on Biomedicine and Health, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is a highly malignant tumor known for its extremely low survival rate. The combination of genetic disorders within pancreatic cells and the tumor microenvironment contributes to the emergence and progression of this devastating disease. Extensive research has shed light on the nature of the microenvironmental cells surrounding the pancreatic cancer, including peripheral nerves and immune cells. Peripheral nerves release neuropeptides that directly target pancreatic cancer cells in a paracrine manner, while immune cells play a crucial role in eliminating cancer cells that have not evaded the immune response. Recent studies have revealed the intricate interplay between the nervous and immune systems in homeostatic condition as well as in cancer development. In this review, we aim to summarize the function of nerves in pancreatic cancer, emphasizing the significance to investigate the neural-immune crosstalk during the advancement of this malignant cancer.

Keywords: PDAC (pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma); immune cells; neural-immune crosstalk; pancreatic cancer; peripheral nerve.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2022YFA1103200); National Natural Science Foundation of China (32270866, 32300693); the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (D2220650); The Pearl River Talent Recruitment Program (2021ZT09Y233); South China University of Technology (K5231040, K5220110); Talent Program and Basic Research Project of Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences (1103792101, GIBHBRP23-02); the CAS Key Laboratory of Regenerative Biology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences (KLRB202201); and partially supported by Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China (2023B1212060050).