Papers of the Week

The tumor microenvironment is a complex milieu where neurons constitute an important non-neoplastic cell type. From "Cancer Neuroscience", the crosstalk between tumors and neurons favors the rapid growth of both, making the cancer-nerve interaction a reciprocally beneficial process. Thus, the cancer-nerve crosstalk may provide new targets for therapeutic intervention against cancer and cancer-related symptoms. We proposed a nerve-cancer crosstalk blocking strategy for metastatic bone cancer pain treatment, achieved by Mg/Al-layered double hydroxide nanoshells (Mg/Al-LDH) with AZ-23 loaded inside and alendronate (ALD) decorated outside. The pain-causing H was rapidly eliminated by LDH, with neurogenesis inhibited by the antagonist AZ-23. As positive feedback, the decreased pain reversed the nerve-to-cancer Ca crosstalk-related cell cycle, dramatically inhibiting tumor growth. All experiments confirmed the improved pain threshold and enhanced tumor inhibition. The study may inspire multidisciplinary researchers to focus on the cancer-nerve crosstalk for treating cancer and accompanied neuropathic diseases. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.