Institute of Enzymology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, 1117 Budapest, Hungary.
Doctoral School of Molecular Medicine, Semmelweis University, 1089 Budapest, Hungary.
Cells. 2022 Sep 20;11(19):2942. doi: 10.3390/cells11192942.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) or fibroblasts are one of the most abundant cell types in the tumor microenvironment (TME) exerting various anti- and pro-apoptotic effects during tumorigenesis, invasion, and drug treatment. Despite the recently discovered importance of MSCs in tumor progression and therapy, the response of these cells to chemotherapeutics compared to cancer cells is rarely investigated. A widely accepted view is that these naive MSCs have higher drug tolerance than cancer cells due to a significantly lower proliferation rate. Here, we examine the differences and similarities in the sensitivity of MSCs and cancer cells to nine diverse chemotherapy agents and show that, although MSCs have a slower cell cycle, these cells are still sensitive to various drugs. Surprisingly, MSCs showed similar sensitivity to a panel of compounds, however, suffered fewer DNA double-stranded breaks, did not enter into a senescent state, and was virtually incapable of apoptosis. Our results suggest that MSCs and cancer cells have different cell fates after drug treatment, and this could influence therapy outcome. These findings could help design drug combinations targeting both MSCs and cancer cells in the TME.
间充质干细胞(MSCs)或成纤维细胞是肿瘤微环境(TME)中最丰富的细胞类型之一,在肿瘤发生、侵袭和药物治疗过程中发挥各种抗凋亡和促凋亡作用。尽管最近发现 MSCs 在肿瘤进展和治疗中的重要性,但这些细胞对化疗药物的反应与癌细胞相比很少被研究。一个被广泛接受的观点是,由于增殖率显著降低,这些幼稚的 MSCs 比癌细胞具有更高的药物耐受性。在这里,我们检查了 MSCs 和癌细胞对九种不同化疗药物的敏感性的差异和相似性,并表明,尽管 MSCs 的细胞周期较慢,但这些细胞对各种药物仍然敏感。令人惊讶的是,MSCs 对一组化合物表现出相似的敏感性,但它们遭受的 DNA 双链断裂较少,不会进入衰老状态,几乎不能发生细胞凋亡。我们的结果表明,MSCs 和癌细胞在药物治疗后具有不同的细胞命运,这可能会影响治疗效果。这些发现可以帮助设计针对 TME 中的 MSCs 和癌细胞的药物组合。