Vassilis G. Gorgoulis and colleagues (Vassilis Gorgoulis and Curt Harris are co-senior authors), recently published in Nature Communication a study demonstrating a non-cell autonomous mechanism for certain mutant forms of p53. Particularly the authors depicted that cancer cells harboring specific mutant p53s release exosomes containing miR-1246 that in turn reprograms neighboring macrophages into a cancer-promoting mode, eventually contributing to poor prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer. Since novel therapeutic approaches targeting mutant p53, manipulating exosomes and miRNAs are underway this work identifies a potential therapeutic target.

Pubmed

Cooks T, Pateras IS, Jenkins LM, Patel KM, Robles AI, Morris J, Forshew T, Appella E, Gorgoulis VG, Harris CC. Mutant p53 cancers reprogram macrophages to tumor supporting macrophages via exosomal miR-1246. Nat Commun. 2018 Feb 22;9(1):771. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-03224-w.