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Tumours use NETs as physical shields

  1. Alexandra Flemming
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An expansion of neutrophils in patients with cancer is usually associated with a poor prognosis. This is thought to be due to the ability of neutrophils to induce angiogenesis and mediate immunosuppression. Reporting in Immunity, Teijeira et al. now show that cancer cells can also subvert neutrophil functions by inducing the extrusion of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), which wrap around the tumour cells and protect them from T cell- or natural killer (NK) cell-mediated toxicity.

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Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 19, 388 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41573-020-00083-3

This article has been adapted from a version that originally appeared in Nat. Rev. Immunol. (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41573-019-0054-z)

References

  1. Teijeira, A. et al. CXCR1 and CXCR2 chemokine receptor agonists produced by tumors induce neutrophil extracellular traps that interfere with immune cytotoxicity. Immunity https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2020.03.001 (2020)

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