SYDNEY, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- A new understanding of how cancer cells stay intact to become "immortal" could improve chemotherapy and lead to new treatment options, new research has revealed.
This major discovery about cancer cells could help make chemotherapy work better, reduce side effects, and lead to the development of new cancer treatments, a media release of the Children's Medical Research Institute (CMRI) in Australia said late Tuesday.
The research, published in Nature Communications, focuses on how cancer cells keep their chromosomes intact so they can continue dividing relentlessly, the release said.
Normally, every time a cell divides, the ends of its chromosomes, called telomeres, get a little shorter. When telomeres become too short, healthy cells stop dividing. But cancer cells find ways to maintain their telomeres so they can become effectively "immortal," it said.
Most cancer cells use an enzyme called telomerase to rebuild their telomeres. Researchers discovered that a network of tiny fibres inside the cancer cell's nucleus, made of a protein called actin, helps the telomerase enzyme reach the telomeres that need repair.
This is an important new role for actin. Outside the nucleus, actin is already well known for helping muscles contract and helping cells move. But this newly identified function takes place inside the nucleus, said Professor Tracy Bryan, who leads the Cell Biology Unit at CMRI.
When telomeres are damaged, they normally move around a lot. But they get caught on this actin network, like an insect stuck in a spider web," Bryan said, adding that this makes it easier for telomerase to find and repair them, helping the cancer cell stay alive.
The study showed that to survive the DNA damage caused by chemotherapy, cancer cells can use telomerase, along with this actin network, to repair some of that damage and keep multiplying.
Bryan said that blocking telomerase or disrupting the actin network could enhance chemotherapy effectiveness and might allow lower doses to reduce harmful side effects. ■