Publication
Title
Cold atmospheric plasma-treated PBS eliminates immunosuppressive pancreatic stellate cells and induces immunogenic cell death of pancreatic cancer cells
Author
Abstract
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most aggressive cancers with a low response to treatment and a five-year survival rate below 5%. The ineffectiveness of treatment is partly because of an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, which comprises tumor-supportive pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs). Therefore, new therapeutic strategies are needed to tackle both the immunosuppressive PSC and pancreatic cancer cells (PCCs). Recently, physical cold atmospheric plasma consisting of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species has emerged as a novel treatment option for cancer. In this study, we investigated the cytotoxicity of plasma-treated phosphate-buffered saline (pPBS) using three PSC lines and four PCC lines and examined the immunogenicity of the induced cell death. We observed a decrease in the viability of PSC and PCC after pPBS treatment, with a higher efficacy in the latter. Two PCC lines expressed and released damage-associated molecular patterns characteristic of the induction of immunogenic cell death (ICD). In addition, pPBS-treated PCC were highly phagocytosed by dendritic cells (DCs), resulting in the maturation of DC. This indicates the high potential of pPBS to trigger ICD. In contrast, pPBS induced no ICD in PSC. In general, pPBS treatment of PCCs and PSCs created a more immunostimulatory secretion profile (higher TNF-α and IFN-γ, lower TGF-β) in coculture with DC. Altogether, these data show that plasma treatment via pPBS has the potential to induce ICD in PCCs and to reduce the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment created by PSCs. Therefore, these data provide a strong experimental basis for further in vivo validation, which might potentially open the way for more successful combination strategies with immunotherapy for PDAC.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Cancers
Publication
2019
ISSN
2072-6694
DOI
10.3390/CANCERS11101597
Volume/pages
11 :10 (2019) , 16 p.
Article Reference
1597
ISI
000498826000194
Pubmed ID
31635070
Medium
E-only publicatie
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Exploring the potential and underlying mechanisms of therapeutic activation of p53 in combination with immunotherapy to stimulate an innate immune response against non-small cell lung cancer.
Exploring HIF in poly(I:C)-based immunotherapy to stimulate innate immunity in glioblastoma multiforme.
Elucidating mechanisms of plasma-induced immunogenic cancer cell death and determining efficacy to elicit anti-tumor immunity: An experimental and computational study
Investigation of programmed death-1 and its ligands as novel immunotherapeutic targets in malignant pleural mesothelioma.
Improving cancer immunotherapy outcome by targeting hypoxia.
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 21.10.2019
Last edited 28.11.2024
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