Bugging inflammation in lung cancer
How the lung microbiome highlights therapeutic avenues for lung cancer
An MIT study linking the lung microbiome to inflammation offers new therapeutic strategies for treating lung cancer and a mechanistic rationale for testing cytokine inhibitors in the disease, a tack Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN) has already taken.
In a Cell paper last month, a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported mouse models of lung cancer with intact, pathogen-free lung microbiomes had higher lung tissue counts of γδ T cells that secreted inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1β and IL-23 and IL-17A, than germ-free models or normal mice. Lung tissue samples from lung adenocarcinoma patients had higher counts of cytokine-secreting γδ T cells and higher levels of IL22RA1 than samples from healthy volunteers...