From bioelectricity to personalized therapeutic strategies in cancers

Cancers are highly heterogeneous. Understanding this heterogeneity could help to improve their detection and to propose personalized therapeutic strategies.

The micro-environment surrounding cancer cells, also called Tumor Micro-environment (TME), play a significant role in this tumoral heterogeneity. Interaction and communication with the TME promote cancer cell development and proliferation.

Bioelectricity is defined as the regulation of cell or tissues functions by various ion fluxes. Those ion fluxes are essential for maintaining the intracellular ion homeostasis and functional properties of cells and tissues. A mis-regulation of these fluxes is frequently associated to various pathologies including cancers. Recently, it has been demonstrated that cancer cells can use ion fluxes to communicate with the TME and adapt their cellular response in function of the environment.

In this study, we propose to take advantage of this particular feature of cancer cells to document the heterogeneity of communications existing between cancer cells and the TME in order to establish a catalog of response and their associated consequences on the cancer cell biology. This catalog will help to better predict the behavior of cancer cells based on the profile of response to the TME observed.

.