| A mechanism that cells use to group together and move around the body -- called 'chase and run' -- has been described for the first time by scientists at University College London and the University of Barcelona. |
Amechanism that cells use to group together and move around the body – called 'chase and run' - has been described for the first time by scientists at University College London and the University of Barcelona.
Published in Nature Cell Biology, the new study focuses on the process that occurs when cancer cells interact with healthy cells in order to migrate around the body during metastasis. Scientists know that cancer cells recruit healthy cells and use them to travel long distances, but how this process takes place and how it could be controlled to design new therapies against cancer remains unknown.
Now, using embryonic cells called 'neural crest cells' (which are similar to cancer cells in term of their invasive behaviour) and placode cells which are the precursors for cranial nerves (the equivalent to healthy cells) researchers at UCL have started to unravel this process.
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The authors of the study are confident that the process whereby cancer cells attached to healthy cells in order to migrate around the body is comparable. Healthy cells of the body try to escape from tumor cells, but are followed by malignant cells because the healthy cells produce an attractant for the cancer cells.
According to Xavier Boring, researcher at IBEC and UB, "is like a donkey who pursues a carrot: the cells of the neural crest are the donkey pursued, but never get the carrot cell cells of the placode. " "The" persecution "occurs in the presence of a signaling protein, the Sdf1, while the" leak "causes the other protein, N-cadherin," adds Boring.
The research results provide new data on the process of cell migration, which is essential in the development and tissue regeneration. Better understand how the cell migration to better understand how cancer cells invade surrounding tissues.
"The findings suggest an alternative way in which cancer treatments might work in the future if therapies can be targeted at the process of interaction between malignant and healthy cells to stop cancer cells from spreading and causing secondary tumours."
"Most cancer deaths are not due to the formation of the primary tumor, instead people die from secondary tumors originating from the first malignant cells, which are able to travel and colonize vital organs of the body such as the lungs or the brain."
SOURCE University of Barcelona
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