Symposium of the International Cell Death Society Cheiro de Mato Resort of Maripora, São Paulo, Brazil on 10–13 June 2011
The Symposium of the International Cell Death Society ‘Signaling in cell death survival, proliferation and degeneration’ was held at the Cheiro de Mato Resort of Maripora, close to São Paulo, Brazil on 10–13 June 2011. This meeting addressed the triggers of cell death, non-apoptotic aspects of cell death, how pathogens affect cell death, and new therapeutic approaches. It attracted attendees from 15 countries. The meeting opened with a tribute to Jürg Tschopp and the ICDS Award lecture by Guido Kroemer, ‘Cancer cell death: killing the immortal’, which emphasized immunogenic chemotherapy, an argument furthered by a presentation by Laurence Zitvogel. Immunogenic chemotherapy addresses the immunogenic effects of tumor cell death induced by a variety of cytotoxic drugs. Tumor-derived antigen presentation can be mediated by the alarmin HMGB1 (released by dying tumor cells in response to chemo/radiotherapy) and by TLR4 on dendritic cells. TLR4 recognizes tumor-derived antigens, leading to T-cell activation and to the induction of an antitumor immune response. Kroemer noted that most anticancer drugs elicit non-immunogenic apoptosis. Laurence Zitvogel emphasized off-target roles of adenine nucleotides in anticancer treatments. The microenvironment of the cancer cell is affected by galectine 3 (Roger Chammas) and multiple regulators of TRAIL (Gustavo Amarante-Mendes), as well as microRNA-10B (Flavia Maziero Andreghetto). Novel means of regulating cell death in cancer therapy included a natural cytotoxic peptide from snake venom (Mirian Hayashi), immunization together with interferon, homoharingtonine, and histone acetylases (Ruan Medrano, Jarmila Stremenova, and Jo-Ann de la Mare). The role of caveolin-1 is ambiguous; its function depends on the cell context and its relationship with survivin and cyclooxygenase 2 (Andrew Quest).
