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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