Press Trust Of India
London, Dec 26: For the first time, scientists have shown how lung cancer cells break loose and spread around the body, paving the way for a potential drug target to stop the cancer from spreading.
Scientists took microscopic images showing the protein that ties tethering cells together are severed
in lung cancer cells — meaning
that they can break loose and then spread.
Researchers at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute discovered that the ties that lash cells together — controlled by a protein called TIAM1 — are chopped up when cell maintenance work goes wrong.
Healthy cells routinely scrap old cell parts so they can be broken down and used again.
However, this process of breaking down and being used again
spirals out of control in lung
cancer cells, which scrap too many TIAM1 ties. Targeting this recycling process could stop lung cancer from spreading by keeping the cells stuck firmly together.
“This important research shows for the first time how lung cancer cells sever ties with their neighbours and start to spread around the body, by hijacking the cells’ recycling process and sending it into an overdrive. Targeting this flaw could help stop lung cancer from spreading,” said lead researcher, Dr Angeliki Malliri, at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute attached to the University of Manchester.
“Lung cancer causes more than one in five of all cancer deaths in the UK and it’s vital that we find effective new treatments to fight the disease and save more lives,” Nell Barrie, Cancer Research UK’s senior science information manager, said.
“Early-stage research like this is essential to find treatments which could one day block cancer spread — which would be a game changer,” Barrie said.
