Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Southwest Hospital.
Department of Neurobiology, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Neurobiology, College of Basic Medical Sciences.
J Clin Invest. 2023 Dec 15;133(24):e167725. doi: 10.1172/JCI167725.
Tumor burden, considered a common chronic stressor, can cause widespread anxiety. Evidence suggests that cancer-induced anxiety can promote tumor progression, but the underlying neural mechanism remains unclear. Here, we used neuroscience and cancer tools to investigate how the brain contributes to tumor progression via nerve-tumor crosstalk in a mouse model of breast cancer. We show that tumor-bearing mice exhibited significant anxiety-like behaviors and that corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) neurons in the central medial amygdala (CeM) were activated. Moreover, we detected newly formed sympathetic nerves in tumors, which established a polysynaptic connection to the brain. Pharmacogenetic or optogenetic inhibition of CeMCRH neurons and the CeMCRH→lateral paragigantocellular nucleus (LPGi) circuit significantly alleviated anxiety-like behaviors and slowed tumor growth. Conversely, artificial activation of CeMCRH neurons and the CeMCRH→LPGi circuit increased anxiety and tumor growth. Importantly, we found alprazolam, an antianxiety drug, to be a promising agent for slowing tumor progression. Furthermore, we show that manipulation of the CeMCRH→LPGi circuit directly regulated the activity of the intratumoral sympathetic nerves and peripheral nerve-derived norepinephrine, which affected tumor progression by modulating antitumor immunity. Together, these findings reveal a brain-tumor neural circuit that contributes to breast cancer progression and provide therapeutic insights for breast cancer.
肿瘤负担被认为是一种常见的慢性应激源,可导致广泛的焦虑。有证据表明,癌症引起的焦虑可能会促进肿瘤的进展,但潜在的神经机制尚不清楚。在这里,我们使用神经科学和癌症工具,研究了在乳腺癌小鼠模型中,大脑如何通过神经-肿瘤串扰促进肿瘤进展。我们发现,荷瘤小鼠表现出明显的焦虑样行为,而中内侧杏仁核(CeM)中的促肾上腺皮质激素释放激素(CRH)神经元被激活。此外,我们在肿瘤中检测到新形成的交感神经,它们与大脑建立了多突触连接。CeMCRH 神经元和 CeMCRH→外侧巨细胞旁核(LPGi)回路的遗传药理学或光遗传学抑制显著缓解了焦虑样行为并减缓了肿瘤生长。相反,人工激活 CeMCRH 神经元和 CeMCRH→LPGi 回路会增加焦虑和肿瘤生长。重要的是,我们发现抗焦虑药物阿普唑仑是减缓肿瘤进展的有前途的药物。此外,我们表明,CeMCRH→LPGi 回路的操纵直接调节肿瘤内交感神经和外周神经源性去甲肾上腺素的活性,通过调节抗肿瘤免疫来影响肿瘤进展。总之,这些发现揭示了一个大脑-肿瘤神经回路,它有助于乳腺癌的进展,并为乳腺癌提供了治疗上的见解。
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