Researchers have identified a molecule that determines whether or not a type of lung cancer cell will undergo cancer cell death. This discovery may lead to better approaches to lung cancer treatment, specialists say.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), lung cancer is the
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) note that at present,
However, we may now be one step closer to finding more effective pathways toward treating NSCLC; a new study led by Dr. Anurag Singh – from the Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts – has found that one molecule indicates whether or not some of the more resilient cancer cells die following chemotherapy.
The researchers’
In NSCLC, some epithelial cells – which form part of the lung tissue lining and normally align neatly with each other – transform into mesenchymal-like cells. Mesenchymal cells are non-aligning cells, which are able to “migrate.” In the context of NSCLC, they have the potential to become cancerous cells, invading healthy tissue and forming tumors.
The mesenchymal-like cells that result from this “switch” exhibit mutations in the KRAS gene, which plays an important role in controlling cell division. KRAS is a proto-oncogene, meaning that it is susceptible to mutations that allow it to promote the development of cancer.
Cancerous mesenchymal-like cells are very often resilient and typically resist programmed cell death after exposure to chemotherapy.
The researchers found that a molecule called
Dr. Singh and team were able to identify the role of miR-124 by studying cell models from NSCLC tumors in the laboratory.
First, they confirmed the profiles of different types of lung cancer cells. Then, when they compared the biochemical profiles of the cancerous cells, they were able to establish that miR-124 was key to determining whether or not the type of cell aforementioned would respond to chemotherapy agents.
Dr. Singh says that all types of lung cancer have very different characteristics, as well as complex structures. That being the case, he notes, it is of utmost importance that scientists fully understand how these diseases function in order to be able to devise truly effective treatments.
He explains, “Lung cancers display widespread genetic, molecular, and phenotypic variability and heterogeneity. It is critical to understand the implications of this heterogeneity to identify effective targeted therapeutic regimens and clinical diagnostics.”
He adds that better understanding the differences between how various cancer cells function will be a key element in this process.
“Understanding the mechanisms that are associated with phenotypic heterogeneity in lung cancer cells – specifically differences between epithelial and mesenchymal-like cells – allows these differences to be exploited to develop more selective therapeutic agents.”
Dr. Anurag Singh
The researchers are hopeful that their current findings may lead to preclinical trials of improved NSCLC treatments, though they warn that many additional studies are yet to be done.