Air pollution particles hijack peroxidasin to disrupt immunosurveillance and promote lung cancer
- Nanjing University, China
- University of Macau, China
Abstract
Although fine particulate matter (FPM) in air pollutants and tobacco smoke is recognized as a strong carcinogen and global threat to public health, its biological mechanism for inducing lung cancer remains unclear. Here, by investigating FPM's bioactivities in lung carcinoma mice models, we discover that these particles promote lung tumor progression by inducing aberrant thickening of tissue matrix and hampering migration of anti-tumor immunocytes. Upon inhalation into lung tissue, these FPM particles abundantly adsorb peroxidasin (PXDN) - an enzyme mediating type IV collagen (Col IV) crosslinking - onto their surface. The adsorbed PXDN exerts abnormally high activity to crosslink Col IV via increasing the formation of sulfilimine bonds at the NC1 domain, leading to an overly dense matrix in the lung tissue. This disordered structure decreases the mobility of cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes into the lung and consequently impairs the local immune surveillance, enabling the flourishing of nascent tumor cells. Meanwhile, inhibiting the activity of PXDN abolishes the tumor-promoting effect of FPM, indicating the key impact of aberrant PXDN activity on the tumorigenic process. In summary, our finding elucidates a new mechanism for FPM-induced lung tumorigenesis and identifies PXDN as a potential target for treatment or prevention of the FPM-relevant biological risks.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting file; Source Data files have been provided for Figures 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31971309)
- Lei Dong
National Natural Science Foundation of China (32001069)
- Zhenzhen Wang
National Natural Science Foundation of China (81973273)
- Junfeng Zhang
Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20200318)
- Zhenzhen Wang
Fundo para o Desenvolvimento das Ciências e da Tecnologia (FDCT 0018/2019/AFJ,0060/2020/AGJ)
- Chunming Wang
Universidade de Macau (MYRG2020-00084-ICMS)
- Chunming Wang
National Natural Science Foundation of China (the funds for the International Cooperation and Exchange,31961160701)
- Lei Dong
Nanjing University (the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,020814380115)
- Lei Dong
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. All of the animals were handled according to approved institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) protocols (#08-133) of Nanjing University. The protocol was approved by the Animal Ethical and Welfare Committee of Nanjing University (Permit Number: 2008011). All surgery was performed under sodium pentobarbital anesthesia, and every effort was made to minimize suffering.
Copyright
© 2022, Wang et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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