Protein kinase will stop metastases
Cancer metastasis can be stoppedThe newly discovered details of the molecular mechanism that helps cancer cells move through the tissues of the human body, causing metastasis, will help prevent the development of the most dangerous stage of cancer in patients in the future, the authors of the publication in the journal Nature Cell Biology believe.
The authors of the article, scientists from the Mayo Clinic Research Medical Institution in the USA, found that the enzyme, protein kinase D1 (PKD1), plays a key role in the development of the ability of cancer cells to rebuild and thereby be able to move through the tissues of the body.
Protein kinases are a broad group of biologically active molecules that modify the structures and activity of cellular proteins by attaching new functional groups containing phosphorus atoms to them. The researchers found that as long as PKD1 inside cancer cells is active, these cells are not able to move.
A group of scientists led by Peter Storz came to this discovery in the course of studying the chain of biochemical reactions occurring on the front of the surface of migrating cancer cells. In the process of movement on this leading edge of cells, active processes of restructuring of the cellular skeleton (cytoskeleton) formed by the fibers of the muscle protein actin occur.
"A large number of different types of molecules are simultaneously involved in the process of this restructuring, but it follows from our work that in order for a cancer cell to begin migration, PKD1 must be inactive," the Mayo Clinic press service quotes Dr. Storz as saying.
Storz's group identified the entire set of molecules involved in regulating the ability of cancer cells to move and for the first time discovered that PKD1 activity, regulated in turn by the presence of another class of regulatory molecules, suppresses the action of another protein from the SSH group (sling shot), responsible for the maintenance of existing actin fibers by cellular processes. The restructuring of the cytoskeleton by generating new actin fibers should continue continuously while the cancer cells are moving in the tissues.
The scientists confirmed their results in an experiment on laboratory samples of cancer cells: it turned out that the cells in which PKD1 activity is artificially stopped have very high mobility.
"The fundamentals of the mechanism of development of the metastatic form of cancer tumors, first described by us, open up the possibility for the creation of drugs that prevent the development of this, sometimes fatal, degree of the disease," said Storz.