Biological Basis of Five-phase Evolution of Malignant Tumors from Perspective of "Immune Editing" / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Immune escape is one of the ten hallmarks of tumors， which plays an important role in the occurrence and development of tumors. Immune escape refers to a process where tumor cells remodel and edit the immune system through the model of immune clearance， immune balance， and immune escape to "transform" the immune cells into immunosuppressive cells in the tumor microenvironment， so as to support immune escape. The five-stage evolution is the summary of tumor pathogenesis by professor LI Jie. He believes that the gradual development of tumors follows the core pathogenesis of "deficiency-cold-toxin-obstruction-collapse"， in which "depression" runs through the whole process， and cancer toxin is the key. Based on immune editing， this paper combined phenotypic characteristics of tumor cells with the core pathogenesis of the five-stage evolution of professor LI to reveal the biological basis of malignant tumor five-stage evolution. The results indicate that the prominent change from deficiency to cold is the reduction of immune surveillance and the prominent change from toxin to obstruction is immune escape. The final stage of collapse is the outcome of immune failure. Depression is the booster of tumor immune editing. Therefore， the method of reinforcing the healthy Qi and removing toxins was proposed to regulate the immune editing and cut off the five-stage evolution of tumors. Supplementing Qi and warming Yang can reinforce the healthy Qi and restore immune surveillance. Removing toxins and dredging can reverse toxins and immune escape. The harmonizing method can maintain the dynamic balance of immune cells/immunosuppressive cells. Resolving depression can truncate tumor immune editing. Those methods can provide a certain reference for the treatment based on microscopic syndrome differentiation in traditional Chinese medicine （TCM）. In future studies， it is necessary to further explore the specific mechanism of the regulation of immune editing with the methods of supplementing Qi and warming Yang， removing toxins and dredging， their combination， and resolving depression， so as to find out specific Chinese medicines and targets and provide more sufficient evidence for the regulation of tumor immune editing by TCM.