A lab-based research suggests there is a biological way to can restore cancer cells to normality and stop them replicating out of control.
U.S. researchers have tried to add molecules called microRNAs to cancerous cells and they have found that these can put the brakes on cancer, according to a report published in Nature Cell Biology.
The early laboratory tests in a dish look promising. However, it is still a long way until the first applications of these findings will be put to test in clinical trials. For now, it is still unclear whether it will help treat people with cancer, but there are good chances that the new hopes are real.
The researchers at the Mayo Clinic in the United States are hopeful that this new mechanism discovered by them could apply to all types of cancer. According to them, the new method would bring together two fields of science, miRNA biology and microRNA, two fields that until now had not been linked together in a cancer treatment approach.
The scientists had thought that the adhesion molecules were simply gluing and holding cells together. But other studies have found that the adhesion molecules might also have signaling roles. The new Mayo Clinic study shows that adhesion molecules have the role in connecting cells and signal via miRNAs in order to control cell growth. In case that this mechanism becomes deregulated it can lead to cancer. When cells are replenished with miRNAs, it can remedy this and turn the cells back to health.
According to the lead researcher Dr Panos Anastasiadis, by administering miRNAs to the affected cancer cells in order to restore their normal levels, it is possible to re-establish the brakes and restore normal cell function. He added that the initial experiments of his research team in some aggressive types of cancer are already very promising.
A Cancer Research UK's senior science information manager, Henry Scowcroft, declared that the Mayo Clinic's important study may solve "a long-standing biological mystery", however we should keep caution and not getting over-optimistic yet.
According to him, there is a long way to go before making the step from laboratory tests to developing new medication that can help treat people with cancer. However, this is a significant step forward in understanding the mechanisms regulating the cells in our body and how they are signaled to grow and to stop.
