The special protein needed by stem cells can be a new target to kill breast cancer cells

After many years of research, cancer researchers began to realize that cancer cells may behave very similar to stem cells in some special aspects When exposed to specific signals, non-specific cells will start to differentiate When stem cells differentiate, they will gradually become specialized from a one-way street until they eventually die For example, stem cells in the breast will be transformed into lumen cells (the factories that produce milk) Such cells often have a limited life span Cancer cells are very much like stem cells, not because they can be transformed into any type of cells, but in the development mode, It can be transformed into the opposite direction, breeding and crazy development Recently, researchers from the University of Minnesota and other institutions have identified a key protein, bptf, which is very important for the normal function of breast stem cells; The related research is published in the international journal stem cell reports When the researchers inhibit the bptf protein through heredity or chemistry, the stem cells cannot maintain the renewal state and have the characteristics of special breast cells, and then they will die Researcher DOS Santos said that this research is very exciting because it is crucial for us to find the mechanism that drives the progress of breast cancer cells We want to study the stem cell like characteristics of cancer cells, especially their uncertain amplification ability Now researchers are testing the idea that drugs that inhibit bptf may be able to produce and The same effect in stem cells is to promote the differentiation of cancer cells so that they eventually die When researchers elucidated how normal cells can be transformed into cancer cells, they focused on gene expression Every cell in the breast contains all the human genome One way to think about how to transform heart cells into breast cells is that each cell type can express completely different genes In the mammary gland, the ductal structure transporting milk is composed of two highly specific cells, and stem cell habitat can also produce the above cell types, each of which can express different genes at different times of an individual's life The researchers think that bptf is very necessary for maintaining breast stem cells It is a protein with special function, and biologists think that bptf is a chromatin reconstruction factor; Bptf is a part of the regulatory system that turns on chromatin and changes gene expression, especially in breast stem cells The turning on of chromatin is very important for the ability of stem cells to maintain immortality It can produce progeny stem cells to help maintain the health of tissues such as breast cells, and it will continue to "supplement" at any time in an individual's life, such as When an individual is in puberty, the mammary gland tissue will develop rapidly, and during pregnancy, the mammary gland will also develop rapidly to prepare for milk secretion Researcher DOS Santos said that bptf can maintain the "accessibility" of chromatin and the self-renewal ability of breast stem cells Now we know that breast stem cells are highly dependent on protein bptf In the next step, we will further study whether we can use this dependence to target the stem cell like programs or mechanisms that affect breast cancer cells, so as to open More new treatments will be launched.