Vaishali Chandel

By Vaishali Chandel and Dhruv Kumar

Interferons (IFNs), a pleotropic cytokine that has long been regarded as an important effector molecule, are increasingly recognized due to their role in cancer and in antitumor immune response regulation. Interferons broadly alter cellular functions in response to viral and other infections. Dysregulation of interferon has been implicated in cancer, autoimmune disorders, and pathogenesis of chronic viral infections. However, the association between interferons and cancer cell metabolism is poorly understood. Emerging evidence suggests the importance of lipid, energy, and amino acid metabolic pathway in regulating interferon response against cancer. Additionally, viruses exploit and modulate the host cell and induce the major metabolic reprogramming causing cancer. In response, interferons upregulate the transcription of large number of interferon stimulating gene (ISG) whose products play a major role in the innate and adaptive immune response against viral infection. Immense research is being done on understanding the role of IFNs in cancer metabolism. Therefore, systematic evaluation of these associations between interferons and cancer metabolism may have important implications for the development of anticancer therapeutics targeting IFN, minimizing toxicity, and limiting off-target effects.

Part of the book: Innate Immunity in Health and Disease

By Sibi Raj, Vaishali Chandel, Sujata Maurya and Dhruv Kumar

Cancer cells undergo several complex processes to grow and evolve. For their survival, they manipulate the entire system and acquire the ability to gain all the energy demands from the host system itself. Tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) are macrophages abundantly present in the tumor micro environment (TME) and essentially plays a critical role in coordination with the tumor cells helping them to progress and metastasize. One of the key hallmarks in tumor cells is elevated metabolic processes such as glycolysis, fatty acid oxidation, mitochondrial oxidation, and amino acid metabolism. Macrophages help cancer cells to achieve this metabolic demand through a series of signaling events including mTOR, Akt, and PI3K pathways. The M2-like phenotype of macrophages leads to the tumorous macrophage phenotype along with the tumor cells to support tumor growth through metabolic dysregulation. Focusing upon the area of macrophage-mediated tumor metabolism in solid tumors has been a new area that provides new effective targets to treat cancer. This chapter discusses the role of macrophages in tumor metabolism and cancer progression. Targeting TAMs in tumor microenvironment through metabolic axis could be a potential therapeutic option to control the solid tumor growth and propagation.

Part of the book: Macrophages