Reporter: Danut Dragoi, PhD
Scientists at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital have discovered how cancer cells latch onto blood vessels and invade tissues to form new tumors — a finding that could help them develop drugs that inhibit this process and prevent cancers from metastasizing.
Cancer cells circulating in the bloodstream can stick to blood vessel walls and construct tiny “bridges” through which they inject genetic material that transforms the endothelial cells lining the blood vessels, making them much more hospitable to additional cancer cells, according to the new study.
The researchers also found that they could greatly reduce metastasis in mice by inhibiting the formation of these nanobridges. “Endothelial cells line every blood vessel and are the first cells in contact with any blood-borne element. They serve as the gateway into and out of tumors and have been the focus of intense research in vascular and cancer biology.
Building bridges
Metastasis is a multistep process that allows cancer to spread from its original site and form new tumors elsewhere in the body. Certain cancers tend to metastasize to specific locations; for example, lung tumors tend to spread to the brain, and breast tumors to the liver and bone.
To metastasize, tumor cells must first become mobile so they can detach from the initial tumor. Then they break into nearby blood vessels so they can flow through the body, where they become circulating tumor cells (CTCs). These CTCs must then find a spot where they can latch onto the blood vessel walls and penetrate into adjacent tissue to form a new tumor.
Blood vessels are lined with endothelial cells, which are typically resistant to intruders.
The researchers first spotted tiny bridges between cancer cells and endothelial cells while using electron microscopy to study the interactions between those cell types. They speculated that the cancer cells might be sending some kind of signal to the endothelial cells.
“Once we saw that these structures allowed for a ubiquitous transfer of a lot of different materials, microRNAs were an obvious interesting molecule because they’re able to very broadly control the genome of a cell in ways that we don’t really understand,” Connor says. “That became our focus.”
MicroRNA, discovered in the early 1990s, helps a cell to fine-tune its gene expression. These strands of RNA, about 22 base pairs long, can interfere with messenger RNA, preventing it from being translated into proteins.
In this case, the researchers found, the injected microRNA makes the endothelial cells “sticky.” That is, the cells begin to express proteins on their surfaces that attract other cells to adhere to them. This allows additional CTCs to bind to the same site and penetrate through the vessels into the adjacent tissue, forming a new tumor.
Non-metastatic cancer cells did not produce these invasive nanobridges when grown on endothelial cells.
Shutting down metastasis
The nanobridges are made from the proteins actin and tubulin (NB-the protein actin is abundant in all eukaryotic cells. It was first discovered in skeletal muscle, where actin filaments slide along filaments of another protein called myosin to make the cells contract. In non-muscle cells, actin filaments are less organized and myosin is much less prominent, and a tubulin is a protein that is the main constituent of the micro-tubules of living cells, which also form the cytoskeleton that gives cells their structure). The researchers found that they could inhibit the formation of these nanobridges, which are about 300 microns long, by giving low doses of drugs that interfere with actin.
When the researchers gave these drugs to mice with tumors that normally metastasize, the tumors did not spread.
Sengupta’s lab is now trying to figure out the mechanism of nanobridge formation in more detail, with an eye toward developing drugs that act more specifically to inhibit the process.
The SEM picture below,
is a rounded cancer cell (top left) that sends out nanotubes connecting with endothelial cells. Genetic material can be injected via these nanotubes, transforming the endothelial cells and making them more hospitable to additional cancer cells. Image credit: Sengupta Lab. The second picture below,
is showing a cancer cell (bottom center) that creates a gap and enters the endothelial tube. Another cancer cell (middle right) sends out nanotubes to connect with endothelial cells. Both image are credited to Sengupta Lab
An interesting comment on why plants do not develop cancer is given here, The article states that in plants, as in animals, most cells that constitute the organism limit their reproductive potential in order to provide collective support for the immortal germ line. And, as in animals, the mechanisms that restrict the proliferation of somatic cells in plants can fail, leading to tumors. There are intriguing similarities in tumorigenesis between plants and animals, including the involvement of the retinoblastoma pathway as well as overlap with mechanisms that are used for stem cell maintenance. However, plant tumors are less frequent and are not as lethal as those in animals. The authors of the article argue that fundamental differences between plant and animal development make it much more difficult for individual plant cells to escape communal controls.
The structure of the endothelium, the thin layer of cells that line our arteries and veins, is visible here. The endothelium is like a gatekeeper, controlling the movement of materials into and out of the bloodstream. Endothelial cells are held tightly together by specialized proteins that function like strong ropes (red) and others that act like cement (blue). In the picture here, the cell is preparing to divide. Two copies of each chromosome (blue) are lined
up next to each other in the center of the cell. Next, protein strands (red) will pull apart these paired
chromosomes and drag them to opposite sides of the cell. The cell will then split to form two daughter cells, each with a single, complete set of chromosomes. It is interesting that protein strands (red) in this picture are implicated on pulling apart the two copies of chromosomes in the same way the proteins actin and tubules do in the cancer cell interaction with the veins and arteries. It looks like the proteins shaped as strings, the nanobridges, due their shape to the tension development between cancer cells and the veins.
Source
1. http://news.mit.edu/2015/cancer-cells-escape-blood-vessels-1216
2. http://www.nature.com/nrc/journal/v10/n11/full/nrc2942.html
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