Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Aug 30;7(35):57452-57463.
doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.10767.

Epigenetics in myeloid derived suppressor cells: a sheathed sword towards cancer

Affiliations
Review

Epigenetics in myeloid derived suppressor cells: a sheathed sword towards cancer

Chao Zhang et al. Oncotarget. .

Abstract

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), a heterogeneous population of cells composed of progenitors and precursors to myeloid cells, are deemed to participate in the development of tumor-favoring immunosuppressive microenvironment. Thus, the regulatory strategies targeting MDSCs' expansion, differentiation, accumulation and function could possibly be effective "weapons" in anti-tumor immunotherapies. Epigenetic mechanisms, which involve DNA modification, covalent histone modification and RNA interference, result in the heritable down-regulation or silencing of gene expression without a change in DNA sequences. Epigenetic modification of MDSC's functional plasticity leads to the remodeling of its characteristics, therefore reframing the microenvironment towards countering tumor growth and metastasis. This review summarized the pertinent findings on the DNA methylation, covalent histone modification, microRNAs and small interfering RNAs targeting MDSC in cancer genesis, progression and metastasis. The potentials as well as possible obstacles in translating into anti-cancer therapeutics were also discussed.

Keywords: DNA methylation; epigenetics; microRNA (miRNA); myeloid derived suppressor cell (MDSC); small interfering RNA (siRNA).

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no potential conflict of interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Effect of epigenetics on MDSC's expansion, differentiation, migration, activation and function
This schematic represents all the biological behaviors of MDSCs from differentiating from immature cells to performing immunosuppressive function in tumor microenvironment. In each process, microRNAs and other epigenetic approaches play an either positive or negative role. In the tumor site, M-MDSCs inhibit T cell proliferation in a nitric oxide (NO) and arginase-1 (Arg-1) dependent way. G-MDSCs interfere the specific binding of antigen peptide to T-cell common receptors (TCRs) via inducing the nitration of TCRs, which renders T cells unresponsive to antigen-specific stimulation.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Carroll J. New immunotherapies for cancer yield exciting results but high cost. Managed care. 2013;22:54–56. - PubMed
    1. Ileana E, Champiat S, Soria JC. Immune-checkpoints: the new anti-cancer immunotherapies [Article in French] Bulletin du cancer. 2013;100:601–610. - PubMed
    1. Muccioli M, Benencia F. Toll-like Receptors in Ovarian Cancer as Targets for Immunotherapies. Front Immunol. 2014;5:341. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Movahedi K, Laoui D, Gysemans C, Baeten M, Stange G, Van den Bossche J, Mack M, Pipeleers D, In't Veld P, De Baetselier P, Van Ginderachter JA. Different tumor microenvironments contain functionally distinct subsets of macrophages derived from Ly6C(high) monocytes. Cancer Res. 2010;70:5728–5739. - PubMed
    1. Danelli L, Frossi B, Pucillo CE. Mast cell/MDSC a liaison immunosuppressive for tumor microenvironment. Oncoimmunology. 2015;4:e1001232. - PMC - PubMed