Inflammatory Activation of Astrocytes Facilitates Melanoma Brain Tropism via the CXCL10-CXCR3 Signaling Axis
Melanoma is the deadliest skin cancer due to its high rate of metastasis, frequently to the brain. Brain metastases are incurable; therefore, understanding melanoma brain metastasis is of great clinical importance. We used a mouse model of spontaneous melanoma brain metastasis to study the interacti...
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Published in | Cell reports (Cambridge) Vol. 28; no. 7; pp. 1785 - 1798.e6 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
Elsevier Inc
13.08.2019
Elsevier |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Melanoma is the deadliest skin cancer due to its high rate of metastasis, frequently to the brain. Brain metastases are incurable; therefore, understanding melanoma brain metastasis is of great clinical importance. We used a mouse model of spontaneous melanoma brain metastasis to study the interactions of melanomas with the brain microenvironment. We find that CXCL10 is upregulated in metastasis-associated astrocytes in mice and humans and is functionally important for the chemoattraction of melanoma cells. Moreover, CXCR3, the receptor for CXCL10, is upregulated in brain-tropic melanoma cells. Targeting melanoma expression of CXCR3 by nanoparticle-mediated siRNA delivery or by shRNA transduction inhibits melanoma cell migration and attenuates brain metastasis in vivo. These findings suggest that the instigation of pro-inflammatory signaling in astrocytes is hijacked by brain-metastasizing tumor cells to promote their metastatic capacity and that the CXCL10-CXCR3 axis may be a potential therapeutic target for the prevention of melanoma brain metastasis.
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•CXCL10 is upregulated in metastases-associated astrocytes in vivo•Astrocyte-derived CXCL10 enhances melanoma cell migration toward astrocytes•CXCR3, the receptor for CXCL10, is upregulated in brain-tropic melanoma cells•Targeting CXCR3 expression attenuates the formation of melanoma brain metastases
Melanoma brain metastases are incurable. Doron et al. find that astrocyte-secreted CXCL10 is functional in melanoma chemoattraction to the brain. CXCR3, the CXCL10 receptor, is upregulated in brain-seeking melanoma cells. Silencing CXCR3 expression attenuates brain metastasis, suggesting that the CXCL10-CXCR3 axis may be a therapeutic target for melanoma brain metastasis. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 2211-1247 2211-1247 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.07.033 |