Research status and prospects of pituitary adenomas in conjunction with neurological and psychiatric disorders and the tumor microenvironment

Siyuan Cui; Sainan Chen; Xuechao Wu; Qing Wang

doi:10.3389/fnins.2024.1294417

Research status and prospects of pituitary adenomas in conjunction with neurological and psychiatric disorders and the tumor microenvironment

Front Neurosci. 2024 Apr 22:18:1294417. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1294417. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Siyuan Cui^#^{1

2}, Sainan Chen^#^{3

4}, Xuechao Wu^{4

5

6}, Qing Wang^{4

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Endocrinology, Jiangnan University Medical Center, Wuxi No.2 People's Hospital, Wuxi, China.
² Department of Endocrinology, Wuxi No.2 People's Hospital, Affiliated Wuxi Clinical College of Nantong University, Wuxi, China.
³ School of Clinical Medicine, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
⁴ Department of Neurosurgery, Jiangnan University Medical Center, Wuxi No.2 People's Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China.
⁵ Wuxi Neurosurgical Institute, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China.
⁶ Neuroscience Center, Wuxi School of Medicine, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Patients with pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs) often experience neuropsychiatric disorders due to factors such as hormonal imbalances, and inadequate management of medications, surgeries, and radiation therapies. Commonly observed disorders include depression, anxiety, and cognitive dysfunction, which significantly impact patients' quality of life and prognosis. PitNETs have a significant presence of immune cells within the tumor microenvironment (TME), predominantly macrophages and T lymphocytes. These immune cells secrete a variety of cytokines, growth factors, and chemokines, which regulate the biological behaviors of PitNETs, including tumor initiation, proliferation, migration, invasion, and angiogenesis. In addition, this review provides a pioneering summary of the close relationships between the aberrant secretion of proinflammatory cytokines within the TME of PitNETs and the occurrence of neuropsychiatric disorders, along with their potential underlying mechanisms. The cytokines produced as a result of TME dysregulation may affect various aspects of the central nervous system, including neurotransmitter metabolism, neuroendocrine function, and neurovascular plasticity, thereby leading to a higher susceptibility to neurobehavioral disorders in PitNET patients.

Keywords: anxiety; cognitive impairment; cytokines; depression; immune cells; neuropsychiatric disorders; pituitary neuroendocrine tumors; tumor microenvironment.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 82000685), Jiangsu Provincial Association for Science and Technology Youth Science and Technology Talent Support Project (grant no. JSTJ-2023-WJ003), Top Talent Support Program for young and middle-aged people of Wuxi Health Committee (grant no. BJ2023034), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant no. BK20191140), and the fund of “the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan” of Jiangsu Provincial Medical Key Discipline (grant no. ZDXK202227).