Milestones in Medical Science
Scientists uncover 'car-ignition' of breast cancer
A recent study from Scripps Florida researchers sheds new light on the process that turns healthy breast cells into cancer cells and offers potential new routes to treatment.
Associate Professor Jun-Li Luo
In the study, published in the journal Molecular Cell, Scripps Florida Assistant Professor Jun-Li Luo uncovered a self-sustaining signaling circuit that inhibits a specific RNA that is a well-known tumor suppressor.
Dr. Luo compares the circuit to starting a car – inflammatory cells activate RNA the same way a car battery ignites the car's engine. Once the engine is started, the battery is no longer needed. Likewise, once the RNA is activated, its pathway directs a consistent activation of a signaling circuit in transformed cells. The consistent signaling circuit maintains the malignant state of the tumor cells.
The self-sustaining signaling circuit also activates IL6, a tumor initiator, which then sets off a self-sustaining circuit in normal breast cells that is necessary for the initiation and maintenance of their transformed malignant state. IL6 represses the action of a microRNA that is responsible for holding down inflammation and cell transformation.
This could be a particularly useful target for drugs. When this microRNA is enhanced, it impairs the growth of existing cancer cells and increases their sensitivity to anti-tumor drugs. So, compounds that disable the repression could be a widely-helpful therapeutic.
The new findings dovetail with the "multiple hits theory" of tumor formation, which suggests that once normal cells in the human body accumulate enough pre-cancerous mutations, they are at high risk for transformation into tumor cells. While the newly described initial pathway activation is momentary and not enough to cause any lasting changes in cell behavior, it may be just enough to tip the cell's transformation into cancer, especially if it comes on top of an accumulation of other cellular changes.
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