Nature: Scientists find new ways to fight cancer for cancer cells

humans' perception of cancer is always spirallingIn the past, we simply thought that cancer was distinguished by the site of the disease, that all grew in the lungs were lung cancer, and that they grew in the stomach with stomach cancerIn this simple and brutal perception, doctors tend to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to cancer in the same areaand with the sequencing of the human genome, we have made great progress in precision medicineNow we know that even cancers in the same area may have different cancer-causing mutations behind themIn this regard, we need to use different targeted drugs for treatmentSimilarly, multiple cancers that develop in different locations may have the same genetic variation behind themIn this case, "broad-spectrum" anti-cancer drugs can treat multiple cancers at the same timea study published yesterday in the leading academic journal Nature has given our understanding of cancer a deeper layer - cancer cells that originate in different parts of the world may have very different metabolic pathwaysBlocking these metabolic pathways is expected to allow us to treat these cancersthe study was led by Professor Paul SMichel of the University of California, San Diego, who collaborated with Professor Vineet Bafna's teamIn the study, scientists looked at a small class of molecules called NAD, which played a key role in the oxidation reduction reaction in transmitting electrons and were essential for cell metabolismIn mammalian cells, there are three metabolic pathways for synthetic NAD, and the mechanism by which different cells choose specific pathways is not well articulated,, the author of the study, Professor Paul SMichel (pictured: Professor Paul S Michel's lab website), The team did a large-scale analysis to study which NAD synthesis pathway cancer cells would choose They analyzed more than 7,000 samples from tumors, and more than 2,600 samples from normal tissue, involving up to 19 types of tissue They then applied mathematical modeling and validated the hypothesis in cell and mouse experiments, trying to summarize specific patterns and explore the secrets of cancer cells' choice of NAD synthesis pathways in order to find potential treatments no one thought that cancer cells were lazy on this matter of life and death different NAD synthesis pathways within normal cells (Photo: Resources 1) In normal cells, an enzyme called NAPRT is the key to synthetic NAD The researchers found that if NAPRT expression levels were higher in a normal group of tissues, cancer cells from such tissues expressed the enzyme in large quantities This makes these cancer cells almost entirely dependent on this synthesis pathway to produce NAD Analysis shows that prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, etc , there are this phenomenon in contrast, if NAPRT expression in a normal tissue itself is not high, cancer cells derived from such tissues will rely on other NAD synthesis pathways to survive What kind of concept is this? Simply put, ordinary cells can choose one of the three NAD synthesis pathways, while "lazy" cancer cells star down at one path If you give cancer cells "hukou", find their source, and inhibit this NAD synthesis pathway in the cancer cells, it can kill the cancer cells In theory, the potential impact on ordinary cells is limited because other pathways can be selected in cell and mouse experiments, the treatment idea was tested (Photo: Source: Supplied) To test the idea, the researchers used an inhibitor to suppress a specific NAD synthesis pathway Cell experiments have shown that it does reduce the synthesis of NAD and inhibit the growth of cancer cell lines And the effects of these inhibitors on normal cells that do not use this pathway are almost negligible the feasibility of this treatment approach was also confirmed in the ovarian cancer model of mice In the mice treated, the NAD levels in the tumor decreased and tumor growth was inhibited "We worked to find and target the NAD metabolic pathways of tumor cells in different tumor types This lays the foundation for future cancer treatments that are specific, selective, do not affect normal tissues, and have great potential Professor Michel, author of the study, commented We congratulate all scientists involved in this study for making this important discovery, and look forward to the results of the mouse study being repeated in human patients and bringing new treatment options to patients at an early date! References: s1 ssuhir Chowdhry et al., (2019), NAD bi'r di'r cancer i haped by gene avigny and enhancer sing, Nature, http://doi.org/10.1038/41586-019-1150-2
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