RESUMO
Esophageal carcinoma is one of the malignant tumors with a high mortality rate， accounting for nearly 570，000 cancer deaths worldwide annually， and this number is increasing year by year. In recent years， despite the continuous improvement of treatment programs for esophageal carcinoma， the overall five-year survival rate of esophageal carcinoma is still less than 20% due to the development of drug resistance and the tolerance of patients during the treatment process. Tumor microenvironment （TME） is composed of various cells and related components with tumor cells as the core and featured by hypoxia， acidosis， chronic inflammation and immunosuppression， which plays an important role in the progression of tumors. Studies have found that tumor-associated fibroblasts， tumor-associated macrophages， myeloid-derived suppressor cells and regulatory T cells in TME can promote the proliferation， migration， invasion， and lymph node metastasis of cancer cells by secreting cytokines and activating pro-inflammatory pathways， and promote cancer progression by inducing the drug resistance of cancer cells and evading immunosuppression. Because cancer-associated cells in TME are genetically more stable than cancer cells， have fewer mutations and have lower chance of drug resistance， targeting cancer-associated cells in TME by regulating TME is a new research direction of cancer therapy. Traditional Chinese medicine has the advantages of multi-component and multi-target. It can participate in the regulation of TME through multiple ways， reduce the number of cancer-associated cells in TME， inhibit crosstalk between TME and cancer cells， and restore immune cell function. It is an important source for the regulation of TME and the research and development of drugs targeting cancer-associated cells in TME. In this paper， the role of cancer-associated cells in the TME of esophageal cancer and the current application of traditional Chinese medicine targeting cancer-associated cells in TME are reviewed， so as to provide reference for the research and development of TME targeted drugs for esophageal carcinoma.
RESUMO
Protein phosphorylation is one of the main ways to activate protein bioactivity and make it participate in cell life activities. Researches have shown that approximately 30% of proteins in the human body are modified by phosphorylation at different levels and at different sites. If the protein phosphorylation modification level or site is abnormal, it will cause the occurrence and development of malignant tumors. Malignant tumors have always been a kind of diseases that endanger human life and health. According to statistics, as many as 18 million malignant tumors and more than 9.6 million deaths occur every year worldwide. With the continuous recognition on the abnormality of protein phosphorylation modification in tumorigenesis and development, the research and development of drugs for abnormality of protein phosphorylation modification has become a focus in the field of tumor therapy at present. Each traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) can be regarded as a natural molecular library, and it participates in the regulation of protein phosphorylation modification level with the advantages of multiple components and multiple targets, with slight side effect and low drug resistance, so TCM is one of the main sources of drug development for regulating protein phosphorylation modification levels. Through the search of multiple databases at home and abroad, it was found that certain monomers, parts extracted from TCM, single-TCM and TCM compounds can affect the tumor progression by regulating the level of protein phosphorylation and exert better anti-tumor effect. Based on the current research status of protein phosphorylation regulation by TCM at home and abroad, we found that TCM can inhibit tumor cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis, angiogenesis, and maintenance of stem cell stemness by regulating protein phosphorylation levels, and exert antitumor effects by promoting apoptosis. In order to clarify the molecular mechanism of TCM in regulating protein phosphorylation level and exerting antitumor effect, and provide evidences for the development and clinical application of antitumor TCM, the authors reviewed the mechanism of TCM in regulating protein phosphorylation level and exerting their antitumor effect from different ways in this paper.