[ad_1]
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – According to a new study, researchers at the University of Minnesota have been successful in preventing cancer cells from moving and spreading even when their cells have changed motion.
It is a discovery that could have a major impact on millions of cancer patients who are undergoing treatment to prevent cancer from spreading in their bodies.
For years, researchers have known that tumors have patterns that act as small "highways" that allow cancer cells to move into the tumor and invade the body. But researchers have not been able to understand how cancer cells recognize these patterns and follow them.
The research, published in the Nature Communications research journal, shows how a research team from the University of Manitoba looked in the lab at how breast cancer cells were moving and using drugs to try to stop them. When the researchers stopped the mechanisms that drive the cells, the cells – much to the researchers' surprise – changed the way they moved to a seeping, tear-shaped movement.
"The cancer cells are very underhanded," said lead author Paolo Provenzano, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Minnesota and a researcher at the Masonic Cancer Center. "We did not expect the cells to change motion.
Provenzano says it forced researchers to change tactics and target both types of movements at the same time.
"It's almost as if we had destroyed their GPS so they could not find the highways. This stopped the cells in their tracks. The cells sat down and did not move, "he said.
The researchers studied cancer cells in microenvironments that mimicked the behavior of cancer cells in a tumor and allowed researchers to accelerate their research.
"By using these controlled network microenvironments, we were able to test hundreds of cell movement events in hours by comparing one or two at the same time by imaging a tumor," said Erdem Tabdanov, postdoctoral researcher in biomedical engineering from the University of Minnesota. author of the study.
The next step for researchers is to expand the types of cancer studied and begin animal testing. The researchers hope to move to clinical trials in humans in a few years.
"Ultimately, we would like to find ways to suppress the movement of cancer cells while strengthening the movement of immune cells to fight cancer," Provenzano said.
Ninety percent of cancer deaths occur when cancer spreads throughout the body. Stopping the movement of cancer cells would allow doctors to have the time needed to use other treatments to improve the survival rate of patients.
Source link
