The most lethal feature of any cancer is metastasis, the spread of cancer cells throughout the body. New research led by Penn State reveals for the first time the mechanics behind how breast cancer cells may invade healthy tissues. The discovery, showing that a motor protein called dynein powers the movement of cancer cells in soft tissue models, offers new clinical targets against metastasis and has the potential to fundamentally change how cancer is treated.
The researchers used live microscopy to watch the migration of live breast cancer cells in two different systems modeled after the human body. The first system, a two-dimensional network of collagen fibers, revealed how cancer cells move through an extra cellular matrix that surrounds tumors and showed that dynein was key to the movement of cancer cells.
This finding suggests a whole new method for cancer management. Instead of killing the cancer cells with radiation or chemotherapy, you could paralyze them. This is great news because you don't really have to kill the cells, which is a harsh approach that targets both cancerous and healthy cells. Instead, you just have to stop the cancer cells from moving.
Cell "paralysis" could prove to be an effective treatment strategy for cancer compared to chemotherapeutic treatments, because after surgical removal of the main tumor, it could prevent the cancer from spreading without damaging healthy tissues and cells.
The researchers noted that any potential clinical treatment is still far off—as they have yet to run human or animal trials.
PS: Dyenein. - Discovered about 50 years ago. The power stroke of dynein are still an area of active study and many consider it to be a nanoscale winch.
Dyneins are found in many eukaryotes, including fungi, worms, insects, and vertebrates, but genome sequence analyses indicate that they are not present in flowering plants. Dynein complexes are composed of one to three heavy chains, and each complex also has various smaller accessory subunits.
Our cells rely on three main types of motors to move things around, all powered by ATP. Myosin moves along filaments of actin, and is the engine that powers muscle contraction as well as many more molecule-sized transport tasks inside the cell. Kinesin and dynein move along microtubules, in most cases transporting their cargo in opposite directions along the tubule. Together, these tiny molecular motors make sure that everything is in the right place at the right time.
Here's an explanatory video which helps you to understand a bit on the words used above.
The researchers used live microscopy to watch the migration of live breast cancer cells in two different systems modeled after the human body. The first system, a two-dimensional network of collagen fibers, revealed how cancer cells move through an extra cellular matrix that surrounds tumors and showed that dynein was key to the movement of cancer cells.
This finding suggests a whole new method for cancer management. Instead of killing the cancer cells with radiation or chemotherapy, you could paralyze them. This is great news because you don't really have to kill the cells, which is a harsh approach that targets both cancerous and healthy cells. Instead, you just have to stop the cancer cells from moving.
Cell "paralysis" could prove to be an effective treatment strategy for cancer compared to chemotherapeutic treatments, because after surgical removal of the main tumor, it could prevent the cancer from spreading without damaging healthy tissues and cells.
The researchers noted that any potential clinical treatment is still far off—as they have yet to run human or animal trials.
PS: Dyenein. - Discovered about 50 years ago. The power stroke of dynein are still an area of active study and many consider it to be a nanoscale winch.
Dyneins are found in many eukaryotes, including fungi, worms, insects, and vertebrates, but genome sequence analyses indicate that they are not present in flowering plants. Dynein complexes are composed of one to three heavy chains, and each complex also has various smaller accessory subunits.
Our cells rely on three main types of motors to move things around, all powered by ATP. Myosin moves along filaments of actin, and is the engine that powers muscle contraction as well as many more molecule-sized transport tasks inside the cell. Kinesin and dynein move along microtubules, in most cases transporting their cargo in opposite directions along the tubule. Together, these tiny molecular motors make sure that everything is in the right place at the right time.
Here's an explanatory video which helps you to understand a bit on the words used above.
