Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Nature. 2022 Dec;612(7939):338-346. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05443-0. Epub 2022 Nov 16.
Ferroptosis is a non-apoptotic form of regulated cell death that is triggered by the discoordination of regulatory redox mechanisms culminating in massive peroxidation of polyunsaturated phospholipids. Ferroptosis inducers have shown considerable effectiveness in killing tumour cells in vitro, yet there has been no obvious success in experimental animal models, with the notable exception of immunodeficient mice. This suggests that the effect of ferroptosis on immune cells remains poorly understood. Pathologically activated neutrophils (PMNs), termed myeloid-derived suppressor cells (PMN-MDSCs), are major negative regulators of anti-tumour immunity. Here we found that PMN-MDSCs in the tumour microenvironment spontaneously die by ferroptosis. Although decreasing the presence of PMN-MDSCs, ferroptosis induces the release of oxygenated lipids and limits the activity of human and mouse T cells. In immunocompetent mice, genetic and pharmacological inhibition of ferroptosis abrogates suppressive activity of PMN-MDSCs, reduces tumour progression and synergizes with immune checkpoint blockade to suppress the tumour growth. By contrast, induction of ferroptosis in immunocompetent mice promotes tumour growth. Thus, ferroptosis is a unique and targetable immunosuppressive mechanism of PMN-MDSCs in the tumour microenvironment that can be pharmacologically modulated to limit tumour progression.
铁死亡是一种由调节性氧化还原机制失调引发的非凋亡形式的细胞死亡,最终导致多不饱和磷脂的大量过氧化。铁死亡诱导剂在体外杀死肿瘤细胞方面显示出相当大的效果,但在实验动物模型中并没有明显的成功,免疫缺陷小鼠是一个显著的例外。这表明铁死亡对免疫细胞的影响仍知之甚少。病理性激活的中性粒细胞(PMN),称为髓源性抑制细胞(PMN-MDSC),是抗肿瘤免疫的主要负调节因子。在这里,我们发现肿瘤微环境中的PMN-MDSC 会自发地发生铁死亡。尽管减少了 PMN-MDSC 的存在,铁死亡诱导了含氧脂质的释放,并限制了人和小鼠 T 细胞的活性。在免疫功能正常的小鼠中,铁死亡的遗传和药理学抑制消除了 PMN-MDSC 的抑制活性,减少了肿瘤的进展,并与免疫检查点阻断协同作用抑制肿瘤生长。相比之下,在免疫功能正常的小鼠中诱导铁死亡会促进肿瘤生长。因此,铁死亡是肿瘤微环境中 PMN-MDSC 的一种独特且可靶向的免疫抑制机制,可通过药理学调节来限制肿瘤进展。
Nature. 2019-4-17
Cell Death Discov. 2025-8-25
Nat Cancer. 2025-8-18
Cancers (Basel). 2025-8-7