We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
Polyvinyl chloride promotes radioresistance in hepatocellular carcinoma by inhibiting radiotherapy-induced CD8⁺ T cell differentiation
Original title: Polyvinyl chloride promotes radioresistance in hepatocellular carcinoma by inhibiting radiotherapy-induced CD8⁺ T cell differentiation
Summary
Scientists found microplastics in most liver cancer samples they tested, and one common type—polyvinyl chloride (PVC), found in pipes, packaging, and other everyday products—appears to make radiation therapy less effective by weakening the immune system's cancer-fighting cells. The good news: in lab studies, boosting cholesterol helped restore those immune cells and improved how well radiation worked, suggesting doctors might one day counteract this effect. This research adds to growing evidence that the tiny plastic particles we're constantly exposed to could be quietly undermining cancer treatments, making plastic pollution a health issue
Radiotherapy is standard-of-care treatment for intermediate and advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, resistance remains widespread. Microplastics are detectable in various tumors and may disrupt immune responses, but evidence regarding the role of microplastics in radiotherapy is scarce. Here we show that various types of microplastics are detectable in 52 of the 72 HCC samples we examine, but only polyvinyl chloride (PVC) impairs radiotherapy efficacy. Mechanistically, irradiation enhances histone lactylation, which promotes transcription of HMG-CoA reductase in HCC cells, thereby facilitating cholesterol synthesis and reinforcing CD8+ T cell stemness. PVC alters cholesterol localization and affects CD8⁺ T cell differentiation, which results in the maintenance of an immunologically cold tumor immune microenvironment. A high-cholesterol diet restores CD8+ T-cell stemness and improves therapeutic response to radiotherapy in PVC-infiltrated HCC. Targeting cholesterol metabolism may represent a potential combinatorial strategy to enhance the efficacy of radiotherapy in PVC-infiltrated HCC. Microplastics have become a common pollutant in modern life, and their influence on disease and therapy outcomes is a pressing public health issue. Here, the authors show that several types of microplastics are detectable in most samples from human hepatocellular cancers, and of these, polyvinyl chloride interferes with radiotherapy via changing the anti-tumor CD8 + T cell response and the tumor microenvironment.