Cancer cell defenses revealed for the first time

For the first time, it has become possible to observe a specific defense used by cancer cells to try to avoid the effects of chemotherapy.

Researchers now hope this study will help target and improve treatments.

Attacking weapons in cells

In short, cancer occurs when cells lose control of themselves and begin to divide abnormally and uncontrollably. The error is often due to damage to the cells’ DNA.

When our cells divide, tube-like protein structures called microtubules cut off the genetic material inside the cell, allowing new daughter cells to be formed.

To prevent cancer cells from dividing, doctors can try to attack the small tube-like arms with a certain type of chemotherapy, so that the chromosomes in the cell cannot separate.

Usually, chemotherapy stops the normal function of the tubes in the cell because they break into several parts.

But the researchers noticed the cancer cells evading.

Gather strength again

According to the researchers, when the small tube-like arms in cells are broken into smaller pieces, a signal is activated in the cancer cells that causes the tubes to extend to the edge of the cell and retract so that the pieces are cut off. Join again.

The researchers believe this maneuver allows the tube-like proteins to stabilize and muster the force needed to grab the chromosomes and pull them into each daughter cell, allowing the cancer cell to continue dividing.

Researchers already suspect that cancer cells possess this special defense mechanism. But only recently have they gotten good enough images of cancer cells, their tube-like structures, and their actual division in real time.

“It was very surprising to us because we did not expect that this mechanism in cancer cells could be used in this way to defeat cancer treatment, but it happened right before our eyes,” said Peter Gunning, one of the researchers. Behind the study for the media New Atlas.

The study was published in the scientific journal Current biology.