大部分因癌症而死亡的病例都是由于癌细胞扩散到了肝脏或大脑等重要器官所导致。
人体癌细胞资料图
日前，瑞士洛桑癌症研究中心的科学家在PLos ONE杂志上发表论文"Identification of Prognostic Molecular Features in the Reactive Stroma of Human Breast and Prostate Cancer"称发现了一种促进肿瘤扩散和转移的“主力”蛋白质——成骨细胞特异因子-2（Periostin）。研究人员实验证明，控制这种蛋白质的数量能够有效抑制恶性肿瘤（癌细胞）的活跃程度。因此，这一发现将有望给癌症治疗开辟一条全新的途径。
成骨细胞特异因子-2是一种细胞外基质蛋白，一般存在于细胞之间的结缔组织缝隙中，对于胎儿骨骼的形成有重要作用。研究小组负责人约尔格·许尔斯曼博士介绍说，研究人员在模拟肿瘤存活环境时发现了成骨细胞特异因子-2的上述作用。
“我的同事们模拟了几种适宜肿瘤存活、并利于肿瘤扩散形成癌细胞的环境，发现这种特别的蛋白质对于恶性肿瘤的扩散起着非常重要的作用。”约尔格博士说，“如果没有这种蛋白质的‘搬运功能’，癌细胞就不能顺利扩散，并会一直保持休眠状态。也就是说，如果我们能够控制这种蛋白质的活跃程度，就有望抑制癌细胞的进一步扩散和恶化。”
科学家们已经开始根据这一发现，研制能够附着在这种蛋白质外壁并导致其功能失调的抗体，并希望这种抗体能够帮助人类抵抗癌症的侵害。
“动物实验证明我们的治疗方法是行得通的，且不会产生太多的副作用。虽然，这并不代表这种抗体对人体同样有效，而且我们也不确定能够找到对人体有效的类似抗体，但我们正在努力。”约尔格博士说。
目前，大部分因癌症而死亡的病例都是由于癌细胞扩散到了肝脏或大脑等重要器官所导致的。因此，如果科学家能够成功研制出抑制该种蛋白的人体抗体，对于癌症治疗来说将具有历史性的意义。（生物谷bioon.com）
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科学家发现身体如何对抗癌细胞扩散
PNAS：特定复合糖类可抑制癌细胞扩散
JCB：miR22使细胞老化从而抑制癌细胞增殖和转移
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018640
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Identification of Prognostic Molecular Features in the Reactive Stroma of Human Breast and Prostate Cancer
Anne Planche1#, Marina Bacac1#, Paolo Provero2, Carlo Fusco1, Mauro Delorenzi3, Jean-Christophe Stehle1, Ivan Stamenkovic1*
Primary tumor growth induces host tissue responses that are believed to support and promote tumor progression. Identification of the molecular characteristics of the tumor microenvironment and elucidation of its crosstalk with tumor cells may therefore be crucial for improving our understanding of the processes implicated in cancer progression, identifying potential therapeutic targets, and uncovering stromal gene expression signatures that may predict clinical outcome. A key issue to resolve, therefore, is whether the stromal response to tumor growth is largely a generic phenomenon, irrespective of the tumor type or whether the response reflects tumor-specific properties. To address similarity or distinction of stromal gene expression changes during cancer progression, oligonucleotide-based Affymetrix microarray technology was used to compare the transcriptomes of laser-microdissected stromal cells derived from invasive human breast and prostate carcinoma. Invasive breast and prostate cancer-associated stroma was observed to display distinct transcriptomes, with a limited number of shared genes. Interestingly, both breast and prostate tumor-specific dysregulated stromal genes were observed to cluster breast and prostate cancer patients, respectively, into two distinct groups with statistically different clinical outcomes. By contrast, a gene signature that was common to the reactive stroma of both tumor types did not have survival predictive value. Univariate Cox analysis identified genes whose expression level was most strongly associated with patient survival. Taken together, these observations suggest that the tumor microenvironment displays distinct features according to the tumor type that provides survival-predictive value.
