• HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Detonating fuse for breast cancer discovered

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
March 22, 2021
in Health
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

IMAGE

Credit: Birchmeier Lab, MDC

Breast cancer is the most common type of tumour found in women. 69,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in Germany alone. Around 80 percent of tumours originate in the luminal cells, the milk-producing cells of the mammary gland. 10 percent of the cells resemble those of the underlying (basal) cell layer. These are muscle-like epithelial cells that contract when the mammary gland produces milk in order to push it out.

“While luminal breast tumours are usually sensitive to hormones, 80 percent of basal-like tumours are triple-negative. They have no receptors for estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR) or the growth factor receptor HER2”, says Professor Walter Birchmeier. He heads the Signal Transduction in Development and Cancer Lab at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC). As there are currently no targeted treatments for this very aggressive form of cancer, the prognosis for affected patients is poor. These tumours rarely respond to conventional chemotherapeutic agents, which are intended to inhibit cell division.

The tumours did not grow in the mice in the absence of YAP

In previous studies, Birchmeier’s team was able to demonstrate that the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway plays a key role in the development of basal-like breast cancer. This signalling cascade normally regulates cell proliferation and differentiation during embryonic development. Wnt is essential for the beta-catenin protein to signal to the nucleus. Once the cells are mature and ‘the job has been done’, this reaction chain is disabled and beta-catenin is degraded. However, the signalling pathway can be reactivated in some types of cancer. In the case of basal-like breast cancer, it is activated and beta-catenin accumulates in the tumour cells. It was also known that the YAP oncogene is upregulated in cancer stem cells. The YAP protein stimulates cell growth and is also active in the nucleus.

The aim of the current study was to investigate the connection between Wnt signalling and YAP. PhD student Hazel Quinn, lead author of the study, deactivated the YAP gene at the onset of tumour growth in mice in which the Wnt signalling pathway was activated and basal-like breast cancer was induced. It was found that while mice in the control group developed massive tumours within weeks, this did not occur in the YAP knockout mice.

“We do not see any breast tumours in the absence of YAP. YAP is therefore required for the development and spread of the tumour,” says Hazel Quinn The scientist used dyes and specific antibodies to make YAP in the nuclei visible in tissue sections. The alveoli – small sack-like structures in which the milk is formed and stored – are easily recognisable and free of tumours when the YAP gene is deactivated. They are almost invisible in the tissue of the control group because the proliferating carcinoma displaces them.

Conclusions regarding survival

YAP is a key regulator in the Hippo signalling pathway, which was only discovered a few years ago. It plays an important role in cell regeneration and differentiation for stem cells. If it does not function correctly, cancer can develop. “It is also likely to be the reason why the YAP gene is highly expressed in basal-like breast cancer but not in luminal breast cancer. The cells of basal-like tumours are similar to stem cells, whereas luminal tumours are much more differentiated,” explains Hazel Quinn.

Quinn’s co-author Dr. Philipp Mertins, expert in proteomic analysis and group leader at MDC and the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), carried out gene expression analyses on tissue samples from human breast tumours and was able to confirm this hypothesis. While basal-like tumours generally exhibit high expression levels of the YAP gene, these are significantly lower in luminal breast cancer. How much YAP is present in the tumour is also directly correlated with the survival time of patients. “The higher the YAP level in triple-negative breast cancer, the earlier women died. In the case of luminal breast cancer, the reverse is true,” explains Hazel Quinn.

Approach to targeted therapy

Cancer stem cells are usually the reason why small tumour clusters remain in the tissue despite chemotherapy, and the cancer returns at a later stage and forms metastases. Unlike in mice, genes in humans cannot simply be deactivated. However, the good news is that YAP can be inhibited with medication. “As we now know how important YAP is for these cells, the combination of YAP inhibitors that do not produce any non-specific side effects and conventional therapeutic strategies could improve patients’ chance of survival without recurrence,” says Hazel Quinn.

Quinn demonstrated that this could be done in mice by inhibiting YAP activity with the substances Simvastatin or Verteporfin, which are approved for treating other diseases. Both inhibitors significantly reduced the tumour volume. “A German pharmaceutical company is currently researching molecules that can specifically inhibit YAP,” adds Walter Birchmeier. It may be some time before a highly effective and well-tolerated new active ingredient is discovered and can be used in the clinic. “Combination treatments with different inhibitors that work at different points of signalling pathways are currently being favoured,” says Birchmeier.

###

The Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC)

The Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) was founded in Berlin in 1992. It is named for the German-American physicist Max Delbrück, who was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. The MDC’s mission is to study molecular mechanisms in order to understand the origins of disease and thus be able to diagnose, prevent and fight it better and more effectively. In these efforts the MDC cooperates with the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) as well as with national partners such as the German Center for Cardiovascular Research and numerous international research institutions. More than 1,600 staff and guests from nearly 60 countries work at the MDC, just under 1,300 of them in scientific research. The MDC is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (90 percent) and the State of Berlin (10 percent), and is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.
http://www.mdc-berlin.de

Media Contact
Jana Ehrhardt-Joswig
[email protected]

Original Source

http://www.mdc-berlin.de/news/press/detonating-fuse-breast-cancer-discovered

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-20-2801

Tags: Breast CancercancerMedicine/Health
Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

IMAGE

Verbal fluency deficits in multiple sclerosis may reflect impaired language ability

April 21, 2021
IMAGE

Scientists reveal origin of neuronal diversity in hypothalamus

April 21, 2021

Brushing away oral health disparities in America’s rural children

April 21, 2021

For scleroderma, algorithm helps better screen for fatal complication

April 21, 2021

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

POPULAR NEWS

  • IMAGE

    A sturdier spike protein explains the faster spread of coronavirus variants

    44 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 11
  • UofL, Medtronic to develop epidural stimulation algorithms for spinal cord injury

    56 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14
  • Jonathan Wall receives $1.79 million to develop new amyloidosis treatment

    61 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • New evidence in search for the mysterious Denisovans

    34 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Tags

Zoology/Veterinary ScienceUrbanizationVaccineVirusUrogenital SystemVehiclesWeaponryVaccinesWeather/StormsVirologyViolence/CriminalsUniversity of Washington

Recent Posts

  • A growing problem of ‘deepfake geography’: How AI falsifies satellite images
  • Study: ‘Fingerprint’ for 3D printer accurate 92% of time
  • Microplastics affect global nutrient cycle and oxygen levels in the ocean
  • Direct observation of the ad- and desorption of guest atoms into a mesoporous host
  • Contact Us

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In