科學(xué)新進(jìn)展：將乳腺癌細(xì)胞轉(zhuǎn)為脂肪細(xì)胞

Researchers have been able to coax human breast cancer cells to turn into fat cells in a new proof-of-concept study in mice.

在對(duì)老鼠進(jìn)行的概念論證研究中，研究員可以誘騙人類乳腺癌細(xì)胞轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)橹炯?xì)胞。

To achieve this feat, the team exploited a weird pathway that metastasising cancer cells have; their results are just a first step, but it's a truly promising approach.

為了取得這項(xiàng)功績(jī)，團(tuán)隊(duì)利用轉(zhuǎn)移性癌細(xì)胞的奇特通路。他們的結(jié)果只是第一步，但是確實(shí)是個(gè)很有前途的方法。

When you cut your finger, or when a foetus grows organs, the epithelium cells begin to look less like themselves, and more 'fluid' – changing into a type of stem cell called a mesenchyme and then reforming into whatever cells the body needs.

你切到手指的時(shí)候，胎兒長(zhǎng)器官的時(shí)候，上皮細(xì)胞開(kāi)始看起來(lái)不那么像他們自己了，更加像“液體”，變成一種叫做間質(zhì)的干細(xì)胞，然后變成身體需要的任何一種細(xì)胞。

This process is called epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and it's been known for a while that cancer can use both this one and the opposite pathway called MET (mesenchymal‐ o‐epithelial transition), to spread throughout the body and metastasise.

這個(gè)過(guò)程叫做上皮細(xì)胞-間充質(zhì)轉(zhuǎn)化(EMT)。大家已經(jīng)知道了一段時(shí)間，癌細(xì)胞既可以用這種方式也可以用相反的叫做EMT(間充質(zhì)-上皮細(xì)胞轉(zhuǎn)化)的方式在體內(nèi)擴(kuò)散轉(zhuǎn)移。

The researchers took mice implanted with an aggressive form of human breast cancer, and treated them with both a diabetic drug called rosiglitazone and a cancer treatment called trametinib.

研究人員在小鼠體內(nèi)植入一種攻擊性的人乳腺癌細(xì)胞，用治療糖尿病的藥物羅格列酮和治療癌癥的藥物曲美替尼治療小鼠。

Thanks to these drugs, when cancer cells used one of the above-mentioned transition pathways, instead of spreading they changed from cancer into fat cells – a process called adipogenesis.

多虧了這些藥物，當(dāng)癌細(xì)胞用上述的其中一種轉(zhuǎn)變方式，而不是擴(kuò)散時(shí)，它們從癌細(xì)胞轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)榱酥炯?xì)胞。這種過(guò)程叫做脂肪形成。

"The models used in this study have allowed the evaluation of disseminating cancer cell adipogenesis in the immediate tumour surroundings," the team wrote in their paper, published in January 2019.

團(tuán)隊(duì)在2019年1月發(fā)表的論文中寫(xiě)道， “這項(xiàng)研究中使用的模式允許對(duì)直接腫瘤環(huán)境中擴(kuò)散癌細(xì)胞的脂肪形成進(jìn)行評(píng)估。”

"The results indicate that in a patient-relevant setting combined therapy with rosiglitazone and trametinib specifically targets cancer cells with increased plasticity and induces their adipogenesis."

“結(jié)果顯示，在與病人相關(guān)的環(huán)境中，使用羅格列酮和曲美替尼的療法特別針對(duì)具有可塑性的癌細(xì)胞，引導(dǎo)它們進(jìn)行脂肪形成。”

Although not every cancer cell changed into a fat cell, the ones that underwent adipogenesis didn't change back.

雖然不是每個(gè)癌細(xì)胞都會(huì)轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)橹炯?xì)胞，但已經(jīng)發(fā)生了脂肪形成的細(xì)胞不會(huì)變回來(lái)。