George Kumar, Senior Director of Medical Diagnostics, Pan Tumor and GI Cancers at AstraZeneca, shared a post on LinkedIn about a recent article by Lei Ren at al, published in Cancer Cell:
“New Insight: Sensory Neurons Directly Fuel Pancreatic Cancer Growth
A fascinating new study uncovers how pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells form pseudo-synaptic connections with sensory neurons—revealing a previously unseen mechanism of tumor progression in an extracerebral cancer.
Key Highlights
- Cancer–neuron pseudo-synapses identified: PDAC cells physically interface with sensory nerve endings, forming synapse-like structures.
- GRIN2D enrichment: These sites accumulate the glutamatergic receptor subunit GRIN2D, making cancer cells highly sensitive to neuron-derived glutamate.
- Glutamate as a growth signal: Neuronal glutamate activates GRIN2D-driven pathways that accelerate PDAC growth, invasion, and calcium signaling.
- Therapeutic opportunity: Blocking glutamate–GRIN2D signaling at these pseudo-synapses significantly improves survival in pancreatic cancer models.
Why this matters:
This work provides compelling evidence that peripheral neurons can ‘wire into’ tumors and directly promote cancer progression. Targeting these neuron-cancer communication loops could open new neurobiology-inspired strategies for treating one of the deadliest cancers.
Figure Courtesy: Cancer Cell
Ihsan Ekin Demir. Technical University of Munich, School of Medicine, Munich, Germany”
Title: Sensory neurons drive pancreatic cancer progression through glutamatergic neuron-cancer pseudo-synapses
Authors: Lei Ren, Chunfeng Liu, Kaan Çifcibaşı, Markus Ballmann, Gerhard Rammes, Carmen Mota Reyes, Sergey Tokalov, Andreas Klingl, Jennifer Grünert, Keshav Goyal, Peter H. Neckel, Ulrich Mattheus, Benjamin Schoeps, Saliha Elif Yıldızhan, Osman Ugur Sezerman, Nedim Can Cevik, Elif Arik Sever, Didem Karakas, Okan Safak, Katja Steiger, Alexander Muckenhuber, Kıvanç Görgülü, Zongyao Chen, JingCheng Zhang, Linhan Ye, Mohammed Inayatullah Maula Ali, Vijay K. Tiwari, Nataliya Romanyuk, Florian Giesert, Dieter Saur, Roland Rad, Roland M. Schmid, Hana Algül, Achim Krüger, Helmut Friess, Güralp O. Ceyhan, Rouzanna Istvanffy, Ihsan Ekin Demir
Read the Full Article on Cancer Cell
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