Nature Cancer: Resistance to immune monitoring helps tumor metastasis

, June 10, 2020 /PRNewswire
/ -- Scientific evidence suggests that when one cell or group of cells is separated from the original tumor and passed through the blood to another place, where it grows into a newtumor, the cancer will shift to other organsCluster cells appear to have higher metastasis potential than individual cells, and a report published in the journal Nature Cancer has new insights into the choice of cluster cellsresearchers have found that tumor cell groups are more resistant to natural killer cells (NK) than individual tumor cells, an immune cell that specifically monitors and destroystumorcellsThe destruction of NK cell mediate is more resistant, resulting in an abnormally high proportion of cluster cell metastasisThe results suggest that enhancing the natural ability of NK cells to eliminate circulating cancer cells may provide a complementary method for cancer treatmentpicture source: "We're using different animal models to study whytumor
clusters seem to form lung metastasis better than individual cells, and when we accidentally found that the metastasis of cluster cells seemed to be related to the ability of NK cells," said Hin Ching Flora Lo, a ph.d's student in integrated molecular and biomedical sciences at Baylor College of Medicine and lead author of the studyShe is a member of DrXiang Zhang's lab, drZhang is a professor of molecular andcell biology
at Baylor College of Medicine, and a member of the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center the researchers determined that activated NK cells can destroy both single-cell and cluster cell transfer, but they are more efficient at eliminating single-cell transfer Cluster cells have a selective advantage, so they contribute more to metastasis than individual cancer cells "We also explored what mediated these groups' resistance to NK cell killing, and found that cancer cell populations seemed to reduce NK cell activity against them," Lo said "Cell clusters on the cell surface show more molecules that inhibit NK cell activity, and fewer molecules that increase their activity Therefore, when NK cells come together to destroy them, their combined effect is to reduce lethal activity "
this phenomenon may represent an additional survival advantage that complements other known cancer group characteristics, such as resistance to chemotherapy " our study highlights the importance of NK cells in immunotherapy Activated NK cells react quickly and can effectively kill tumor cells They use a killing mechanism similar to T-cells, but the recognition of tumors cells is different That is one of the reasons why we believe that enhancing NK-mediated lethality may provide a complementary approach to immunotherapy "(BioValleyBioon.com) references: toTheDIDs for the of the metastasis, Hin Ching Lo et al, Resistance to natural killer cellsurveillance seiquells sa selective to polyclonal metastasis , Nature Cancer (2020) DOI: 10.1038/s43018-020-0068-9