The study induced breast cancer cells in mice to be converted into harmless fat cells

photo source: Cells
When cancer cells respond to signals in the micro-environment, they enter a highly malleable state, in which they can easily be converted into another type of cell. Swiss researchers used superseedal-interstate transformation (EMT) to induce breast cancer cells in mice to be converted into harmless fat cells. The proof-of-concept study was published recently in Cancer Cells.
cancer cells not only differentiate into fat cells, but also stop proliferation completely," said Gerhard Christofori, lead author of the paper and professor of biochemistry at the University of Basel. "Furthermore, there was no metastasis of the primary tumor." As far as we know, long-term culture experiments have shown that fat cells converted from cancer cells maintain fat cell status and do not recover to breast cancer cells. He said.
EMT is essential for embryonic development and tissue regeneration, such as wound healing. During embryonic development, stem cells differentiate into various cell types throughout the body. Moreover, EMT and the opposite process, interstate-skin transformation (MET), are associated with the metastasis of cancer.
that cells undergoing EMT or MET are in a highly variable state, which provides an opportunity for therapeutic targeting, said Christofori, a director of the University of California, California. The researchers tested metastases for breast cancer in mouse models.
when the mice were treated with two FDA-approved drugs, a cancer inhibitor and an anti-diabetic drug, the invasive cancer cells were converted into fat cells. These drugs also inhibit the growth of primary tumors in mice and prevent the spread of tumors throughout the body.
also targeted a small number of cancer cells that had left the primary tumor and invaded surrounding tissue. These cells are likely to have experienced EMT, so they can easily be converted into fat cells, and the remaining cancer cells in the tumor no longer proliferate indevestrated.
the researchers hypothesized that forcing a critical number of cancer cells to differentiate into fat cells could weaken the tumor's ability to resist traditional chemotherapy. Next, the researchers plan to combine existing chemotherapy and other types of cancer to test EMT-targeted differentiation methods.
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