Measurement of Indoleamine 2, 3 Dioxygenase Activity in Colorectal Cancer: A Controlled Group Study

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) is the rate-limiting enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of tryptophan (Trp) to kynurénine (Kyn).

IDO has been implicated in the suppression of the antitumor immune responses trough depletion of Trp and accumulation of Trp metabolites. Several studies have shown that this activation of tryptophan metabolism by IDO suppresses T-cell proliferation and promotes T-cell apoptosis in the tumor tissue.

Consistently, increased IDO activity have been reported in several types of cancers such as skin breast and lung cancer and have even been associated with disease progression and poor prognosis in lung and skin cancer.

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The Fractalkine-Receptor Axis Improves Human Colorectal Cancer Prognosis by Limiting Tumour Metastatic Dissemination

Colorectal cancer represents one of the most frequent human neoplasia in Western Countries. Patient prognosis dramatically decreases in advanced tumour stage, when tumour cells acquire the capability to leave the primary tumour site and invade lymph nodes or distant organs.

Chemokines and chemokine receptors have been largely demonstrated to play a crucial role in tumour metastatic progression, influencing the leukocyte composition of the tumour microenvironment through the recruitment of immune cells and driving tumour cells to distant metastatic sites.

In our recent paper, we unexpectedly found that the concomitant expression of the chemokine CX3CL1 (Fractalkine) and its specific receptor CX3CR1 by colorectal cancer cells strongly enforces homotypic tumour cell adhesion, retaining cells locally and avoiding tumour metastatic dissemination

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