Bungaro Chiara, Guida Michele, Apollonio Benedetta
Rare Tumors and Melanoma Unit, IRCCS Istituto Tumori "Giovanni Paolo II", Bari, Italy.
Front Immunol. 2025 May 15;16:1568456. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1568456. eCollection 2025.
Over the past years, cancer research has transitioned from a 'cancer cell-centered' focus to a more integrative view of tumors as dynamic ecosystems. This paradigm shift emphasizes the tumor microenvironment (TME) as a complex network of interacting cellular and acellular components, where tumor cells orchestrate a supportive environment that facilitates progression, metastasis, and immune evasion. Understanding the spatial organization of these components within the TME is crucial, as the positioning and interactions between cancerous and non-cancerous cells significantly influence tumor behavior and therapy response. Spatial proteomics has emerged as a powerful tool for TME analysis, enabling the detection and quantification of proteins within intact tissue architecture at subcellular resolution. This approach provides insights into cellular interactions, signaling pathways, and functional states, facilitating the discovery of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets linked to specific tissue regions and cellular contexts. Translating spatial proteomics into clinical practice requires overcoming challenges related to technology refinement, standardization of workflows, and adaptation to routine pathology settings. Melanoma is an aggressive, highly immunogenic malignancy with variable response rates to existing immunotherapies. Given that over half of patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) fail to respond or experience disease progression, the identification of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets to enhance current therapies is urgently required. Spatial imaging technologies are increasingly being utilized to dissect the complex interplay between stroma, melanoma, and immune cell types within the TME to address this need. This review examines key spatial proteomics methods, their applications in melanoma biology, and associated image analysis pipelines. We highlight the current limitations, and future directions, emphasizing the potential for clinical translation to guide personalized treatment strategies, inform prognosis, and predict therapeutic response.
在过去几年中,癌症研究已从以“癌细胞为中心”的关注点转向对肿瘤更综合的看法,即将其视为动态生态系统。这种范式转变强调肿瘤微环境(TME)是一个由相互作用的细胞和非细胞成分组成的复杂网络,肿瘤细胞在其中精心构建一个支持性环境,促进肿瘤进展、转移和免疫逃逸。了解这些成分在TME中的空间组织至关重要,因为癌细胞与非癌细胞之间的定位和相互作用会显著影响肿瘤行为和治疗反应。空间蛋白质组学已成为TME分析的有力工具,能够在亚细胞分辨率下检测和定量完整组织结构内的蛋白质。这种方法有助于深入了解细胞间相互作用、信号通路和功能状态,促进发现与特定组织区域和细胞背景相关的新型生物标志物和治疗靶点。将空间蛋白质组学转化为临床实践需要克服与技术改进、工作流程标准化以及适应常规病理环境相关的挑战。黑色素瘤是一种侵袭性强、免疫原性高的恶性肿瘤,对现有免疫疗法的反应率各不相同。鉴于接受免疫检查点抑制剂(ICI)治疗的患者中超过一半没有反应或经历疾病进展,迫切需要确定新的生物标志物和治疗靶点以增强当前疗法。越来越多地利用空间成像技术来剖析TME中基质、黑色素瘤和免疫细胞类型之间的复杂相互作用,以满足这一需求。本综述探讨了关键的空间蛋白质组学方法、它们在黑色素瘤生物学中的应用以及相关的图像分析流程。我们强调了当前的局限性和未来方向,着重指出临床转化在指导个性化治疗策略、提供预后信息和预测治疗反应方面的潜力。
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