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Some breast cancer spread may be triggered by a protein, study shows
Date:1/17/2012

Cancers rarely are deadly unless they evolve the ability to grow beyond the tissues in which they first arise. Normally, cells -- even early-stage tumor cells -- are tethered to scaffolding that helps to restrain any destructive tendencies. But scientists from the University of Helsinki, Finland, and from UCSF have identified a cleaver-wielding protein that frees some tumor cells, allowing them to further misbehave.

The protein, they discovered, often blankets the surface of breast tumor cells and can help untether the cells from the matrix of their native tissue. Once released, they may continue to expand their numbers into other tissues where their normal counterparts do not tread.

The protein, called hepsin, is a protease, a class of enzymes that cleaves, or cuts, other proteins. Proteases have been targeted successfully by drugs, and hepsin presents a new possible drug target, the researchers said.

"If we could delay or prevent a tumor from switching from one that grows in place to one that invades, then that would be a major milestone in cancer treatment," said study co-author Zena Werb, PhD, a professor of anatomy at UCSF. Werb has for decades studied the ways in which the behavior of tumor cells is influenced by their surroundings, with a focus on breast tumors.

Working with mouse models of breast development and breast cancer in Werb's UCSF laboratory during a visiting professorship, University of Helsinki scientist Juha Klefstrm, PhD -- along with Johanna Partanen, a University of Helsinki graduate student -- designed and led experiments that resulted in the discovery of the hepsin protein's role.

Their findings are published in the January 16, 2012 edition of the Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The scientists studied mammary glands in mice and tissue fragments called organoids isolated from these glands.

They found that inactivation of a tumor suppr
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Contact: Jeffrey Norris
jeffrey.norris@ucsf.edu
415-502-6397
University of California - San Francisco
Source:Eurekalert  

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