Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Nature / 23.06.2016
Membrane Molecules Help Drive Cancer Metastases
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr Stéphanie Kermorgant PhD
Barts Cancer Institute
Queen Mary University of London
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: There is an urgent need to better understand how cancer spreads around the body (a process called metastasis). Often it is metastasis that kills cancer patients and not the primary tumour.
During metastasis, cancer cells detach from the primary tumour and are able to survive detached, allowing them to enter in blood vessels and colonize different parts of the body.
Integrins and growth factor receptors are two classes of cell surface molecules that have been known to cooperate to promote cancer metastasis. However how they communicate is poorly understood. They have mostly been shown to exert their function at the surface of the cells.
Our study reveals that one growth factor receptor, called c-Met, and one integrin, beta1-integrin, in fact communicate inside the cancer cell to increase its survival when detached.
Moreover, this communication occurs in an anusual place in the cell, that we have called “Autophagy Related Endomembrane” (ARE). Autophagy is normally a process that degrades and recycles cellular material, making new building blocks for the cell. Our study reveals that intracellular structures related to the autophagy process can also help membrane receptors to communicate. Thus they may also function as “signalling platforms”.
One other key finding in this study is that integrins normally have been recognized to function as “adhesion molecules”, connecting the cells to their surrounding environment, the “extracellular matrix”. Their role in metastasis has been mostly linked to their adhesive function. Our exciting study reveals a new function of integrins, a “signalling function”, which is independent from their adhesion function.
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