A metastatic melanoma cell (green) interacting with the Siglec1 receptor from macrophages (red) in the subscapular sinus. Image credit: Rohit Singh (CC BY 4.0)
Cancer cells can leave the site where they arise and travel to other organs. Very few of the cancer cells that make this journey will survive long enough to form new tumors (also known as ‘metastases’). However, melanoma cells – the most aggressive type of skin cancer cells – are an exception. These cells will often colonize their nearest lymph nodes and melanoma patients with metastases in the lymph nodes are less likely to survive than those patients without them.
Previous studies have shown that melanoma cells arrive at a lymph node and first proliferate in the region at the edge of this organ, known as the subcapsular sinus, before moving to the center. However, it was not understood how melanoma cells manage to survive in the subcapsular sinus.
Now, Singh and Choi have tracked fluorescent melanoma cells to observe how they interact with the cells in the lymph nodes in mice. Melanoma cells have ‘sticky’ proteins coated with sugars on their surface. The results show that when the cells arrive in the subcapsular sinus these proteins bind to a receptor called Siglec1 located on the surface of immune cells called macrophages, which are also present. In this way, the melanoma cells anchor themselves in the lymph node. Moreover, binding Siglec1 helps melanoma cells survive and proliferate. In a last set of experiments, Singh and Choi deleted the enzyme responsible for making the sugar molecules in melanoma cells. Without the sugar coat, melanoma cells were less able to anchor themselves and grow within the mouse lymph nodes.
Lymph nodes are often the first stop for melanoma cells on the way to other organs. Therefore, understanding the interaction between melanoma cells and macrophages might be useful for developing therapies that could disrupt this process and treat this aggressive cancer.
