Study suggests cancer can spread to brain through blood vessels
Ann Arbor, April 3: A new study conducted by researchers suggests that cancer can spread to the brain through a recently discovered mechanism. The option for treatment of this disease are limited as the majority of medications are made to fight metastases either cannot penetrate the blood-brain barrier or are ineffective against brain metastases.
"Understanding how cancer cells thrive or fail in the brain niche could help us develop new treatments targeting these molecular processes," said Sofia Merajver, M.D., Ph.D., the Greater Good Breast Cancer Research Professor at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center.
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The study, published in advanced science, found that cancer cells may be able to travel through the blood vessels of the skull and enter the brain. This could explain why certain cancers, such as melanoma, can spread to the brain even when the primary tumor is located in a different part of the body.
The researchers used two microfluidic chips which are to record cancer cell migration to the brain and these are further examined that was occurring in the blood-brain niche in order to comprehend the molecular mechanisms that affect how cancer cells pass through the blood-brain barrier.
Using breast cancer cell lines, they found that Dkk-1, a cytokine released by the astrocytes, triggers the cancer cells to migrate. Dkk-1 is known to play a role in in Wnt signaling, a key signaling pathway linked to cancer progression.
"Crosstalk between brain niche cells and cancer cells allows invading cancer cells to permeate the blood-brain barrier. Reducing Dkk-1 levels near invading tumor cells might disrupt this crosstalk and prevent brain metastases," said corresponding author Christopher R. Oliver, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow in the Merajver Lab.
- ANI
