Systemic immune effects of anesthetics and their intracellular targets in tumors

Abstract

According to the result released by the World Health Organization (WHO), non-communicable diseases have occupied four of the top 10 current causes for death in the world. Cancer is one of the significant factors that trigger complications and deaths; more than 80% cancer patients require surgical or palliative treatment. In this case, anesthetic treatment is indispensable. Since cancer is a heterogeneous disease, various types of interventions can activate oncogenes or mutate tumor suppressor genes. More and more researchers believe that anesthetics have a certain effect on the long-term recurrence and metastasis of tumors, but it is still controversial whether they promote or inhibit the progression of cancer. On this basis, a series of retrospective or prospective randomized clinical trials have been conducted, but it seems to be difficult to reach a conclusion within 5 years or longer. This article focuses on the effects of anesthetic drugs on immune function and cancer and reviews their latest targets on the tumor cells, in order to provide a theoretical basis for optimizing the selection of anesthetic drugs, exploring therapeutic targets, and improving the prognosis of cancer patients.

Loss of Recurrent Laryngeal Papillomatosis following Postsurgical Treatment with dsRNA Interferon Inducer

“…The surgery is accompanied by total anesthesia, which negatively affects the host's immune system. It has been shown that total anesthesia can cause immunosuppression, which in turn could affect the viral activity and could aid the prolongation of HPV persistence [ 16 , 17 ].…”

Bibliometric Analysis of Anesthetic Drugs’ Effects on Immune Function- Current Knowledge, Hotspots and Future Perspectives

“…In this field, 292 institutions published papers and 410 inter-agency collaborations were established. The top five universities, based on the number of papers issued, were Harvard University (12), Boston Children's Hospital (10), Harvard Medical School (9), National Institute of Health and Medicine (Inserm) (7), and Fudan University (6). The National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) and Florida State University System Center were ranked first with a centrality score of 0.01 (Figure 4B), (Table S1).…”

“…Presently, numerous research groups are directing their attention towards the impact of anesthetic drugs on immune function, postoperative mortality, and recurrence rate of cancer surgery patients. [8][9][10][11][12] A comprehensive investigation of the effect of anesthetic drugs on immune function holds significant implications for perioperative medication in patients.…”

The influence of immunology and anesthesia on cancer

“…Moreover, procaine inhibited the growth of liver cancer cells. It efficiently regulated DNA methylation in stomach cancer, suggesting it could be a candidate drug for cancers [8]. The non-nucleoside compounds present in local anesthetics function as inhibitors of DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) activity, thereby influencing the expression of micro-RNAs and suppressing histone acetylation.…”

“…Furthermore, the vitro experiments showed that inhalation anesthetics could control immune cells' ability to identify antigens, recruit inflammatory cells, and influence immunological responses carried out by cells. However, due to the dose-dependent effect, sevoflurane and desflurane caused suicide of adaptive immune cells, causing immune suppression [8].…”