A near death experience may make some cancer cells worse
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Overview
Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have identified how some cancer cells cheat treatment-induced cell death. In doing so, they persist and lead to cancer recurrence. The findings may serve as the basis for drugs that prevent relapses by inhibiting cancer cells from gaining these persistence traits. The research was published in Cell.
After treatment, sometimes the cancer returns called a recurrence. Researchers knew that a small population of cancer cells sometimes become drug-resistant and persist after treatment. These "persister" cells can then reconstitute a more aggressive form of same cancer. Until now it was unclear how these cells initially change to become persistent.
Many drugs to treat cancer trigger apoptosis. St. Jude researchers found that a key event that leads to apoptosis, the release of the protein cytochrome c from mitochondria, occurs in persister cells. Historically, researchers believed that once cytochrome c was released into the cell, apoptosis could not be stopped.
The research can serve as a basis for drugs that may prevent cancer recurrence by interfering with the key protein in the stress response.
Ref:
Doug Green,Sublethal cytochrome c release generates drug-tolerant persister cells, Cell, DOI 10.1016/j.cell.2022.07.025
Speakers
Isra Zaman
B.Sc Life Sciences, M.Sc Biotechnology, B.Ed
Isra Zaman is a Life Science graduate from Daulat Ram College, Delhi University, and a postgraduate in Biotechnology from Amity University. She has a flair for writing, and her roles at Medicaldialogues include that of a Sr. content writer and a medical correspondent. Her news pieces cover recent discoveries and updates from the health and medicine sector. She can be reached at editorial@medicaldialogues.in.
