The key to turn off cancer was discovered

According to RCO News AgencyResearchers have discovered a specific type of cancer cell that relies on its biological electricity grid to grow, and the impairment of the plant shows a successful way to combat tumors.

According to New Atlas, small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a very malignant and highly aggressive cancer responsible for about 2 % of all lung cancers and is usually silent and typically metastasis when diagnosed. That makes it very difficult to treat.

Researchers at the Francis Creek Institute (FCI) have now discovered that some cells involved with the formation of SCLC tumors show high levels of electrical activity. They have also identified the source of this increase in power and say that the use of neural drugs that usually disrupt electrical signals can be a powerful way to fight SCLC and possibly with other tumors that do the same.

“We knew that some cancer cells could mimic nerve behavior, but we did not know how to develop an independent electrical network on the development of the disease. Have an impact. Now by combining neuroscience and cancer research techniques, we have been able to look at this disease from a different perspective.

Researchers using mice engineered to develop SCLC, the two types of cells involved in the disease, called neurvandocrine (NE) cells that resemble cells involved in the electrical activity of the nervous system and non-nevandocrine cells (Non-ne). They did.

Over time, the researchers found that the expression of the cancer -activated gene would cause some NE cells to become non -NE cells. In addition, they saw that these two types of cells started working together in the same way that neurons and backup cells called Astroglia work together in the nervous system.

Specifically, they found that non -NE cells were transmitting lactate to NE cells and acting as an independent power supply to support their electrical activity.

The researchers also found that the more electrical activity the NE cells were, the more aggressive the cancer. They also observed this effect not only in mice, but also in people suffering from SCLC.

“Our work shows that Neo cells in SCLC have the ability to get out of the network,” says Paola Peinado Fernandez, the leader of the research team. They start producing their electrical source, and instead of the energy sources used by most other cells, they use non -NE cells. We have identified a feature that makes these cancers more aggressive and harder to treat. We think that this acquired independence of cancer cells may relieve them from dependence on their environment.

Use ballooning venom to save patients

Researchers, with a deeper understanding of the electrical activity in SCLC tumors, decided to see if they can disrupt it and how it affects cancer growth.

They exposed cancer cells to a poison called tetrodotoxin derived from balloon fish known as suppressing electrical activity. While tetrodotoxin does not eliminate electricity generator cells, they reduce their potential for long -term tumor formation, indicating that cutting SCLC electrical activity can be a successful and powerful way to combat the disease.

Researchers are now examining the electrical activity of other cancers to see if they are similar to SCLC. If so, they may be susceptible to new therapeutic options that disrupt their growth by reducing their electrochemical activity.

“There is still a long way to understand the biological impact of this electrical activity and the mechanisms of specific diseases that make the tumor more aggressive and harder, but we hope that by understanding the method that these cancer cells are refueling, we can make vulnerabilities that can be vulnerable to Future therapies targeted, exposed.

This research is published in the journal Nature.

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