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The role of the inflammasome and its related pathways in ovarian cancer

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Abstract

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the most lethal tumor of the female reproductive tract and one of the most prevalent causes of death among female cancer patients. The absence of suitable procedures for early diagnosis, chemoresistance, and limited surgical debulking are all contributing to poor survival in patients. Despite aggressive treatments, the majority of patients have a recurrence within 16–22 months. Inflammasomes are multimeric protein complexes that play a major role in the innate immune system and inflammation. The overexpression of inflammasome-related pathways, including NOD-, LRR- and pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3), Absent in melanoma 2 (AIM2), caspase-1, and Interleukin (IL)-1 have been reported in OC patients and in vitro cell lines. Therefore, inflammasome-related genes and protein might have a role in OC pathogenesis. Considering the potential relationship between inflammasome and OC, this study aimed to provide a literature-based review to explain the role of inflammasome and inflammation in cancer progression in OC.

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Abbreviations

ASC:

Apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase-recruitment domain

OC:

Ovarian cancer

AIM2:

Absent in melanoma 2

DAMP:

Damage-associated molecular patterns

EMT:

Epithelial–mesenchymal transition

HMGB1:

High-mobility group box 1

ICD:

Immunogenic cell death

IHC:

Immunohistochemistry

IL:

Interleukin

LRR:

Leucine-rich repeat

NLR:

Nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich-repeat-containing proteins

NLRP3:

NOD-, LRR- and pyrin domain-containing protein 3

PI3K:

Phosphoinositide 3-kinases

PYCARD:

PYD and CARD domain-containing

TLR:

Toll-like receptor

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  1. Department of Gynaecology, Ganzhou People’s Hospital, No. 16, Meiguan Avenue, Zhanggong District, Ganzhou, 341000, Jiangxi, China

    Chenxi Liu, Xuemei Huang & Hongling Su

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  1. Chenxi Liu
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CL and HS contributed to the idea design, literature search, and writing the manuscript. XH contributed to designing the figures.

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Correspondence to Hongling Su.

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Liu, C., Huang, X. & Su, H. The role of the inflammasome and its related pathways in ovarian cancer. Clin Transl Oncol 24, 1470–1477 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-022-02805-y

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