Fat instead of a tumor
The formation of metastases was prevented by making the cancer cells fatty
Maxim Abdulaev, "The Attic"
Swiss doctors managed to stop the formation of breast cancer metastases, forcing cancer cells to differentiate and turn into fat. The tumor cells were forced to retrain with the help of two long-known drugs, one of which was developed for the treatment of diabetes.
Scientists from the University of Basel decided to catch tumor cells at the epithelial-mesenchymal junction (EMF). EMF is a normal process during which ordinary epithelial cells (which, for example, line the mucosa and form other walls of organs) turn into mesenchyma, a precursor tissue of other connective tissues, a source of stem cells. It is from the mesenchyme that blood cells, fat cells and epithelial cells are formed, including. The EMF of a healthy person is needed when epithelial cells need to change their specialization and become something else. For example, in the process of wound healing, epithelial cells thus become fibroblasts.
Tumor cells also use EMF to lose their specialization. In a new capacity, becoming mesenchyma, they break away from the tumor and spread through the body with the blood flow, attaching to new places and giving rise to metastases. This plasticity allows cancer cells to avoid death and resist treatment.
Previous studies by other scientists have shown that rosiglitazone, a drug that has been used to treat diabetes since 1999, causes reverse differentiation of some cancer cells. In normal practice, rosiglitazone connects to the receptors of insulin target cells, among which there are fat ones. The drug affects the processes of fatty acid accumulation and glucose absorption.
Swiss researchers conducted an experiment with mice that had previously caused breast cancer by transplanting human cancer cells into them. After the tumor developed, they were treated with rosiglitazone and trametinib, a drug approved by the FDA in 2013 for antitumor therapy. The drug affects the expression of genes that are involved in the accumulation of fatty acids and glucose uptake.
After two weeks of daily injections of two drugs, the scientists dissected the mice and assessed the condition of the tumors. It turned out that the tumors stopped growing, and all the cancer cells that entered the transition from the epithelium to the mesenchyma came out transformed — yellow and useful, becoming part of the adipose tissue.
On the right: adipose tissue cell (red) and cancer cells (green). On the right: adipose tissue cells resulting from cancer (yellow). A drawing from the press release of the University of Basel Conversion of breast cancer cells into fat cells impedes the formation of metastases.
Scientists especially note that they were able to achieve success by using two trivial, long-known and approved drugs. According to the authors, based on their research, it is possible to develop a technique that will make chemotherapy more effective, depriving cancer of resistance and reducing the risk of relapses.
Article by Ishay-Ronen et al. Gain Fat—Lose Metastasis: Converting Invasive Breast Cancer Cells into Adipocytes Inhibits Cancer Metastasis is published in the journal Cancer Cell – VM.
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