March 28, 2024

Scientists Discover How Air Pollution Alters Lung Tissue, Increasing Cancer Susceptibility

In mice administered with lung cancer cells that were not exposed to FPM, CTLs were recruited to the lung to destroy the tumor cells. By contrast, in the mice whose lungs were exposed to FPM, the seepage of CTLs was delayed– potentially permitting the growth cells to establish in lung tissue.
To examine why the CTLs did not go into the lung as quickly in the FPM-exposed lungs, the team studied both the CTLs themselves and the lung tissue structure. Taken together, this implies that anywhere FPM lands in the lung, increased peroxidasin activity leads to structural changes in the lung tissue that can keep immune cells out and away from growing tumor cells.”.
Our discovery that peroxidasin is the arbitrator of this effect in lung tissue identifies it as a unanticipated and particular target for avoiding lung disease caused by air pollution.”.

Breathed in great particulate matter (shown here in red) pulls strings of collagen to disrupt the immune defense in mice with lung cancer cells. This activity delays the motion of cytotoxic T-cells (purple) as they move towards the cancer cells (green) to ruin them. Credit: Wang et al. (CC BY 4.0).
Research findings highlight a potential new target for preventing lung disease brought on by air contamination.
According to a paper published in the journal eLife on April 19, 2022, researchers have actually revealed a mechanism that explains how small air contamination particles might cause lung cancer.
The discovery could pave the way for unique strategies to avoid or treat the early lung modifications that lead to the illness.

Tiny, inhalable fine particle matter (FPM) found in air contaminants has actually been recognized as a Group 1 carcinogen and a substantial risk to worldwide health. Nevertheless, the cancer-causing system of FPM stays uncertain.
” Despite its potential to cause mutations, recent research recommends that FPM does not straight promote– and might even inhibit– the growth of lung cancer cells,” explains first author Zhenzhen Wang, an associate scientist at Nanjing University (NJU), Nanjing, China, who carried out the study between laboratories at NJU and the University of Macau where she was sponsored by a University of Macau Fellowship. “This recommends that FPM may lead to cancer through indirect ways that support tumor growth. Some research studies recommend FPM can prevent immune cells from moving to where they are required.”.
To explore this possibility, Wang and the group collected FPM from 7 locations in China and studied its effects on the main immune cells that resist tumor growth– called cytotoxic T-cells (CTLs). In mice administered with lung cancer cells that were not exposed to FPM, CTLs were hired to the lung to damage the growth cells. By contrast, in the mice whose lungs were exposed to FPM, the infiltration of CTLs was postponed– possibly permitting the tumor cells to develop in lung tissue.
To examine why the CTLs did not enter the lung as rapidly in the FPM-exposed lungs, the group studied both the CTLs themselves and the lung tissue structure. They discovered that CTLs exposed to FPM still retained their migratory capability, however that FPM direct exposure drastically compressed the lung tissue structure and the areas that immune cells move in between. There were likewise much greater levels of collagen– a protein that provides biomechanical assistance for cells and tissues. When the group studied the movement of CTLs in the mice, in lung tissue exposed to FPM, CTLs struggled to move, whereas those in the without treatment tissue were able to move freely.
Further analysis of the tissue revealed that the structural changes were caused by increases in a collagen subtype called collagen IV, but the team still did not know how FPM activated this. They found the response when they looked more closely at the structural changes to collagen IV and the enzyme accountable for making them– called peroxidasin. This enzyme drives a specific kind of cross-linking that exposure to FPM was discovered to worsen and cause in the lung tissue.
” The most unexpected find was the system by which this process took place,” Wang says. “The peroxidasin enzyme stayed with the FPM in the lung, which increased its activity. Taken together, this indicates that anywhere FPM lands in the lung, increased peroxidasin activity results in structural modifications in the lung tissue that can keep immune cells out and away from growing tumor cells.”.
” Our study exposes a totally brand-new mechanism by which breathed in great particles promote lung tumor advancement,” concludes senior author Lei Dong, Professor at the School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University. “We supply direct proof that proteins that stay with great particle matter can trigger a unfavorable and substantial result, generating pathogenic activity. Our discovery that peroxidasin is the mediator of this result in lung tissue recognizes it as a unexpected and specific target for avoiding lung illness triggered by air contamination.”.
Referral: “Air pollution particles pirate peroxidasin to interrupt immunosurveillance and promote lung cancer” by Zhenzhen Wang, Ziyu Zhai, Chunyu Chen, Xuejiao Tian, Zhen Xing, Panfei Xing, Yushun Yang, Junfeng Zhang, Chunming Wang and Lei Dong, 19 April 2022, eLife.DOI: 10.7554/ eLife.75345.