Transforming cancer cells into healthy cells may no longer be a dream
In the United States, a group of researchers managed to transform two types of tumor cells into healthy cells thanks to the so-called "differentiation therapy", but it is not excluded that the same technology could also be applied to other types of tumors. All the details
From tumor cells to healthy cells. This is the "magic" that some researchers at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory managed to create in the United States. The experiment took place on rhabdomyosarcoma cells, a particularly aggressive tumor that mainly affects the muscles of children and adolescents. But it is believed that the strategy could also be applied to other types of tumors.
RHABDOMYOSARCOMA
Rhabdomyosarcoma, explains the Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, is a malignant tumor that originates from the cells of the striated muscles. It is typical of children and the average age of onset is 6 years, with two peaks between 2 and 6 years and between 15 and 19 years, with no differences between males and females.
Overall in Italy there are 4-5 new cases per year per million children.
Currently the treatment consists of combining chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy. The probability of cure in cases of localized disease is around 70%, while it remains below 25% for patients with metastatic disease.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE NF-Y GENE
The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory team managed to transform tumor cells into healthy, functioning muscle cells thanks to a new genetic screening method based on the Crispr editing technique. Led by Christopher Vakoc, researchers identified the NF-Y gene that, when deactivated, causes rhabdomyosarcoma cells to differentiate into normal muscle cells.
“The cells literally turn into muscles,” Vakoc said . “The tumor loses all the attributes of cancer. Thus we go from a cell that only wants to replicate to a cell dedicated to contraction. And since all its energy and resources are now devoted to contraction, it cannot return to the state of multiplication.”
This result, according to the researchers, could accelerate the testing of the so-called "differentiation therapy" in rhabdomyosarcoma, which has been worked on for years.
THE IDEA DERIVING FROM LEUKEMIA CANCER CELLS
The idea behind this approach, reports the study published in the journal of the American Academy of Sciences (Pnas), was born with the discovery that in leukemia the tumor cells are not fully mature. Instead, they are similar to stem cells that have not completed their development into a specific cell type and this has made it possible for differentiation therapy to induce them to transform into mature cells.
THE PRECEDENT WITH EWING'S SARCOMA CELLS
But for Vakoc's team it was not a first. In fact, they had already used this method to induce the transformation of tumor cells in Ewing's sarcoma, another pediatric neoplasm that affects soft tissue and bone.
GOOD PROSPECTS
After these positive results obtained with two different tumors , the researchers say they are optimistic and say that the therapy could also be applied to other types of cancer because, according to Vakoc, the new genetic screening technique "allows us to take any tumor and go looking for of a way to cause differentiation”, Furthermore, “it could be a fundamental step towards a more accessible differentiation therapy”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/trasformare-le-cellule-tumorali-in-cellule-sane-potrebbe-non-essere-piu-un-sogno/ on Fri, 08 Sep 2023 05:31:51 +0000.