• Researchers put a spotlight on aggressiv

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Thursday, March 17, 2022 22:30:44
    Researchers put a spotlight on aggressive cancer cells

    Date:
    March 17, 2022
    Source:
    Delft University of Technology
    Summary:
    Metastases in cancer are often caused by a few abnormal cells. These
    behave more aggressively than the other cancer cells in a tumor.

    Researchers are now on a method to detect these cells.



    FULL STORY ========================================================================== Metastases in cancer are often caused by a few abnormal
    cells. These behave more aggressively than the other cancer cells in
    a tumour. Miao-Ping Chien and Daan Brinks are working together, from
    two different universities, on a method to detect these cells. Their
    research has now been published in Nature.


    ==========================================================================
    A patient diagnosed with cancer has increasingly better prospects
    nowadays, because the medicines are becoming more effective. However,
    one risk remains.

    Even after the tumour has shrunk, it can start growing again after a
    while and spread to other organs. This aggressive spread through the body
    is usually caused by a small group of cells. "These cancer stem cells
    behave differently from other cells and therefore have a significant
    impact on cancer recurrence," says Miao-Ping Chien of Erasmus MC,
    who works closely with Daan Brinks of TU Delft. Their collaboration
    is a cross-pollination between two multidisciplinary labs located just
    fifteen kilometres apart. Brinks: "It's easy to just jump on the bike
    or in the car to get to the other lab to do a few more tests at the
    end of the day." What is special about their story is that they are not
    just colleagues but also partners. The couple came to the Netherlands
    together to join forces in cancer research.

    Detecting a few cells that behave differently in a tumour has been a
    major challenge in the field of cancer research for many years. Chien:
    "We've known that they're there for a long time, but the Holy Grail is
    to be able to sequence precisely those cells, to find out their DNA and
    RNA content. Merely examining the outside of the cell is not enough for
    these special cells.

    Although certain characteristic substances can be found there, the
    so-called biomarkers, these are quite changeable in such an aggressive
    cell." To know how those cells really work, Chien and Brinks need to
    decipher the genetic sequence. This makes it easier to determine how these cells work and also how they can be destroyed. Determining the genetic
    profile of cells has been possible for some time now, but determining
    the profile of individual cells has only been possible since a few years.

    Deviant behaviour Chien and Brinks had to combine a whole range of
    techniques to be sure they had got the right cells. By working with
    two labs to piece together and fine-tune a complicated process, it is
    now possible to detect aggressive cancer cells, light them up, separate
    them from the other cells and then determine the RNA sequence. "The first question was: how do these aggressive cells behave? For example, we know
    that they move around more than other cells. And that they don't split up
    into two cells, as in normal cell division, but into three or four cells," explains Chien. So she had to look for such cells in a biopsy specimen,
    that is, a piece of cancer tissue.

    Imaging, lighting up and analysing The two researchers needed a microscope
    that could image a very large number of cells simultaneously as well
    as software to analyse the images. Together with the people working in
    their labs, they developed a microscope that continuously studies the
    images and 'sees' which cells are exhibiting abnormal behaviour.

    This behaviour of aggressive cancer cells unfolds within a time scale
    of minutes to hours, but analysing this behaviour needs to be done
    much faster.

    "After all, you don't want the detected cells to have already moved
    again," Brinks explains. The microscope directs a light beam onto
    the detected aggressive cancer cells. The cells light up because the
    tissue has been treated with a special substance in advance. Next, the
    lit-up cells are selected and these are now ready for RNA sequencing
    and analysis. They only need a few to a few hundred cells.

    Medicines "We can now determine the genetic profile of the aggressive
    cancer cells. This was not so easy to do at first, because you have to
    deal with all the challenges of imaging, selecting and determining the
    RNA sequence in one go.

    Everything in the process has to work properly," says Chien. "And if you
    know what's going on in those cells, you can develop medicines based on
    that. We've succeeded in discovering a mechanism within a few months,
    whereas others needed quite a few years with the existing techniques. We
    just happened to come out with it at about the same time. Maybe, with
    our method, it can eventually be done within a few weeks." The two are
    now setting up a company called UFO Biosciences, so that researchers
    from all over the world can send in cell samples or pieces of cancer
    tissue for analysis. According to them, there is already a great deal
    of interest from other universities and research institutes.


    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Delft_University_of_Technology. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. You, L., Su, PR., Betjes, M. et al. Linking the genotypes and
    phenotypes
    of cancer cells in heterogenous populations via real-time
    optical tagging and image analysis. Nat Biomed Eng, 2022 DOI:
    10.1038/s41551-022-00853-x ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220317120354.htm

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