Kam Ngar-Woon, Lau Cho-Yiu, Che Chi-Ming, Lee Victor Ho-Fun
Department of Clinical Oncology, Centre of Cancer Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China.
Laboratory for Synthetic Chemistry and Chemical Biology Ltd., Hong Kong Science Park, New Territories, Hong Kong 999077, China.
Cancers (Basel). 2023 Oct 4;15(19):4850. doi: 10.3390/cancers15194850.
Clinical evidence suggests that the severe respiratory illness coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is often associated with a cytokine storm that results in dysregulated immune responses. Prolonged COVID-19 positivity is thought to disproportionately affect cancer patients. With COVID-19 disrupting the delivery of cancer care, it is crucial to gain momentum and awareness of the mechanistic intersection between these two diseases. This review discusses the role of the cytokine midkine (MK) as an immunomodulator in patients with COVID-19 and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), both of which affect the nasal cavity. We conducted a review and analysis of immunocellular similarities and differences based on clinical studies, research articles, and published transcriptomic datasets. We specifically focused on ligand-receptor pairs that could be used to infer intercellular communication, as well as the current medications used for each disease, including NPC patients who have contracted COVID-19. Based on our findings, we recommend close monitoring of the MK axis to maintain the desirable effects of therapeutic regimens in fighting both NPC and COVID-19 infections.
临床证据表明，2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）所致的严重呼吸系统疾病常与细胞因子风暴相关，后者会导致免疫反应失调。长期的COVID-19阳性被认为对癌症患者的影响尤为严重。由于COVID-19扰乱了癌症护理的提供，因此了解这两种疾病之间的机制交叉点并提高对此的认识至关重要。本综述讨论了细胞因子中期因子（MK）作为免疫调节剂在COVID-19患者和鼻咽癌（NPC）患者中的作用，这两种疾病均会影响鼻腔。我们基于临床研究、研究文章和已发表的转录组数据集，对免疫细胞的异同进行了综述和分析。我们特别关注可用于推断细胞间通讯的配体-受体对，以及用于每种疾病的当前药物，包括感染了COVID-19的NPC患者。基于我们的研究结果，我们建议密切监测MK轴，以维持治疗方案在对抗NPC和COVID-19感染方面的理想效果。
