Johanna Schaubaecher, Bojan Smiljanov, Florian Haring, Katja Steiger, Zhengquan Wu, Anais Ugurluoglu, Joshua Luft, Simone Ballke, Shaan Mahameed, Vera Schneewind, Jonas Hildinger, Martin Canis, Laura Mittmann, Constanze Braun, Gabriele Zuchtriegel, Rainer Kaiser, Leo Nicolai, Matthias Mack, Wilko Weichert, Kirsten Lauber, Bernd Uhl, Christoph A Reichel
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive tumor entity, in which immune checkpoint (IC) molecules are primarily synthesized in the tumor environment. Here, we report that procoagulant platelets bear large amounts of such immunomodulatory factors and that the presence of these cellular blood components in TNBC relates to pro-tumorigenic immune cell activity and impaired survival. Mechanistically, tumor-released nucleic acids attract platelets into the aberrant tumor microvasculature where they undergo procoagulant activation, thus delivering specific stimulatory and inhibitory IC molecules...
April 22, 2024: Blood