Multi-omics reveals the polyethylene terephthalate carcinogenicity: Cancer progression and immune microenvironment

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a polymer widely used in consumer products, has recently been implicated in cancer progression, though its mechanistic underpinnings remain elusive. This multidisciplinary study systematically investigates PET's carcinogenic mechanisms by integrating network toxicology, machine learning, molecular docking simulations, single-cell RNA sequencing, and spatial transcriptomics. We identified PET-associated oncogenic targets and conducted pan-cancer expression profiling with prognostic analyses of 22 core genes, subsequently employing machine learning algorithms to quantify their prognostic weights across malignancies. Molecular docking revealed six high-affinity PET-binding targets (PIK3CA, TOP2A, PARP1, SRC, EP300, CREBBP; binding energies <-6.0 kcal/mol) predominantly expressed in T-cells and phagocytic cells, with significant infiltration into malignant tumor regions. Mechanistically, PET exposure may drive carcinogenesis through three synergistic pathways: dysregulation of the PI3K-Akt-mTOR signaling axis via PIK3CA, compromised DNA repair mechanisms through TOP2A/PARP1 interactions, and epigenetic reprogramming mediated by the EP300/CREBBP transcriptional complex. These molecular perturbations collectively induce genomic instability, immune dysregulation, and tumor evolution by disrupting cellular homeostasis, DNA integrity maintenance, and chromatin remodeling processes. Finally, we confirmed that PET exposure promotes tumor cell proliferation by experiments such as clone formation and western blotting, that the effect increases with exposure concentration, and that PET exposure increases TOP2A protein levels. Our findings not only delineate PET's role in tumorigenesis but also establish a computational-experimental framework for environmental toxicant evaluation. This work provides critical insights for developing prevention strategies against pollutant-driven malignancies, bridging molecular toxicology with clinical cancer biology.