Cell Rep: a new method to identify breast cancer

February 12, 2020 / bioin / -- invasive breast cancer often manipulates the immune response to its advantage The researchers found that the operation was the same immune "signature" in humans as in mice A study by scientists at the University of Bonn and colleagues in the Netherlands demonstrates this Their method makes it possible to use the tumor tissue of patients to obtain the indication of disease prognosis The research results are published in the Journal of cell reports Image source: cell reports when a tumor begins to grow in the body, the immune system usually does not ignore it: macrophages, a specific cell of the body's own defense forces, migrate around cancer cells They should flow around the diseased cells, digest them, and eventually eliminate them But sometimes tumor cells try to escape their rivals Not only that: they even use macrophages for their own purposes and grow faster as a result To do this, researchers reprogrammed immune cells to ensure that some genes in macrophages were turned off and others were turned on This changes the genetic "characteristics" of macrophages Dr Thomas ulas of the University of Bonn explained: "the characteristics of these changes in turn reveal whether the prognosis of the tumor is good or bad "Gene activity also depends on what genes are usually active in macrophages that researchers need to understand in order to recognize changes caused by tumors However, depending on the organ in which the cells work, this is quite different Experts also talked about "tissue painting": the organization leaves its own mark on immune cells In addition, the changes caused by tumor are not always the same, but also different between different patients According to the mutations that cause breast cancer, other functions of macrophages are turned on or off "It is therefore very difficult to study these complex correlations directly using tissue samples from patients To overcome this obstacle, the scientists worked with a working group from the Netherlands Professor Karin de Visser, a cancer biologist, has been studying mouse lines affected by certain strictly defined types of breast cancer for many years "We've now looked for features of macrophages in tumors in these animals," says ulas To do this, bioinformatics experts and colleagues isolated macrophages from mice with breast cancer and compared them with those in healthy breast tissue They used state-of-the-art computer algorithms to identify genetic differences between these macrophages They also found almost the same features in macrophages in many breast cancer patients "In this case, it is possible to transfer the results of mouse experiments directly to humans," explained Professor Joachim Schultze, head of the genomics and immunoregulation group at the Reims Institute "However, the precondition is that the patient has the same breast cancer as the animal "The results also show how important it is to develop specific mouse models based on cancer types The results of this study can not only be used to predict the invasiveness of tumors: after all, these characteristics also provide information on the survival strategies of cancer cells Therefore, this may eventually lead to the formulation of new countermeasures "However, if there is a new treatment, it will take many years," said ulas "Reference: sander tuit et al Transcription signature derived from murine tumor associated macrophases correlates with poor income in burst cancer patients Cell reports Volume 29, issue 5, p1221-1235.e5, October 292019 doi: 10.1016/j.cellep.2019.09.067