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Comment
. 2025 Apr 29;23(4):e3003088.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003088. eCollection 2025 Apr.

The innate immune system: A double-edged sword

Ditte S Andersen  1 , Julien Colombani  1
Affiliations
Comment

The innate immune system: A double-edged sword

Ditte S Andersen et al. PLoS Biol. .

Abstract

Innate immunity serves as a crucial surveillance framework, but can be exploited to facilitate tumor progression. Two new PLOS Biology studies independently show how premalignant cells can exploit Toll-NF-κB signaling, in concert with oncogenic Ras, to enable unchecked growth.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. The Toll-NF-κB pathway synergizes with oncogenic lesions to promote tumorigenesis.
(A) While Toll-NF-κB pathway activation alone inhibits differentiation, trapping cells in a progenitor-like state, it also increases cell death rates leading to an overall reduction in tissue size. (B) In the presence of oncogenic RasV12, these progenitor-like cells become refractory to cell death, which drives tumor growth. Additionally, NF-κB/Dorsal activates JNK signaling and enhances the invasiveness of polarity-deficient RasV12/scrib−/− tumors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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