High levels of a molecule that is involved in asthma and allergies may help to combat skin cancer, researchers have reported.
The molecule, called TSLP (thymic stromal lymphopoietin), is produced by damaged skin and activates the immune system.
It is believed that very low levels of TSLP make the immune system oversensitive to what should be a harmless environment, leading to skin rashes and overproduction of mucus common in allergies and asthma.
However, a report in the latest edition of Cancer Cell, demonstrates that at very high levels this molecule “trains” the immune system to recognise skin cancer cells and targets them for destruction.
The findings come from laboratory research on mice.
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri, USA, said the findings are surprising because it is believed that the allergic inflammation and release of TSLP increases, not decreases, the risk of tumour development.
But it could be explained by the amount of TSLP that is produced. Mice that were resistant to skin tumour growth had blood levels of TSLP that were 1,000-fold higher than normal.
Dr Raphael Kopan, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Developmental Biology at the university, says: “These experiments demonstrate that there is a way for a natural molecule to help immune cells recognise and reject tumours, at least in the skin.
“This is an example of where hyper-vigilance of the immune system may end up paying dividends. Not only does it respond aggressively to an innocuous allergen, but it begins to monitor, survey and destroy cells that are mutant.”
Dr Kopan said more work has to be carried out to understand fully the role of TSLP in skin cancer and suggested that future studies will also investigate whether TSLP might have similar effects on other types of cancer.
Elevated epidermal thymic stromal lymphopoietin levels establish an anti-tumor environment in the skin. Demehri S, Turkoz A, Manivasagam S, Yockey LJ, Turkoz M, Kopan R. Cancer Cell Oct. 15 2012.
Leave a Reply