A morphing traveler. Interview with Mohit Jolly on identity changes during metastasis!

Cancer cells evade foreign tissues during metastasis. This process is most critical phase of cancer development, since it decreases a successful prognostics drastically. During the invasion process, the cells change their characteristics, acquiring different shapes, cell identity and lineage. How this is regulated still remains open question, and vital to developing a cure for the disease.

Mohit and colleagues take an integrated theoretical-experimental approach to understand how sarcomas spread. Sacromas arise from connective tissues, like bone or fat. And while traveling long distances they undergo a change into more epithelial like identity. This plasticity helps the cells survive better in the the body. To more more about such transition, please listen to the interview with Mohit.



For more information, please refer to:
Mesenchymal-epithelial transition in sarcomas is controlled by the combinatorial expression of miR-200s and GRHL2
Somarelli et al., Molecular and Cellular Biology, 2016

Piggyback Microbe and Cancer! Interview with Niranjan Nagarajan on role of microbiome in bile duct cancer.

Cancer is a very complex disease, with various genetic and environmental factors playing a role in its development and growth. Mutations within the cell and signaling among cells is well known to play vital roles. But could there be other players involved in the process. Of note, something which surrounds us at all times: our microbiome?

Our body is composed of as many microbiome as our own cells. A lot of it comes from the food we eat and the water we drink. Along with our meals, food related parasites might bring their own microbiome into our body, and these could in turn home into organs and modify the tissue microenviroment. This is what Niranjan and colleagues see for bile duct cancer - in which liver fluke parasite arriving from consumption of raw fish finds a home in the bile duct and increases the chance of developing cancer. Their work emphasizes an appreciation into the role of microbiota in cancer development. To know more, please listen to Niranjan.  



To learn more, please refer to:
Tissue Microbiome Profiling Identifies an Enrichment of Specific Enteric Bacteria in Opisthorchis viverrini Associated Cholangiocarcinoma
Chng et al., eBioMedicine, June 2016Volume 8, Pages 195–202.

Immunological Curate's Egg -- Interview with Chong Luo about defining the line between tumor elimination and autoimmunity.

Immune cells in our body not only function to ward off infections, but also eliminate unfit, and possibly cancerous cells. For this, T cells, a part of our adaptive immune response, recognize the harmful cells within the body and kill them. But sometimes they can get confused, and are unable to distinguish between harmful and normal cells. In this case, they start attacking functional organs, leading to auto-immune disorder. What helps them maintain the capacity to successfully make such distinctions??

Chong Luo and her colleagues probed this query and found that a transcription factor, Foxo1, helps define this fine line. Foxo1 expression level decreases in a certain class of Treg cells during their fight with tumor cells. However, continued expression of Foxo1 in such Treg cells impairs the response and shifts it towards autoimmunity. To understand such regulation, please listen to in to an interview with Chong.


To know more about the work, please read:
Graded Foxo1 activity in Treg cells differentiates tumour immunity from spontaneous autoimmunity
Luo et al., Nature, 2016.

Finding causative needle in genomic haystack -- Interview with Samuel Tsang about drivers of Pancreatic Caner!!

Pancreatic cancer is the deadliest kind, with only 5% people surviving after 5 years from diagnosis. Many celebrities including Steve Jobs and Patrick Swayze succumbing to it. Pancreatic cancer, like any other, is a heterogeneous disease with many cell and gene of origins leading to its development and spread. But how can doctor find out the cause behind his patient's pancreatic cancer. Could there be a fast and efficient way to screen for the causative needle in the genetic haystack.

Samuel Tsang and his colleagues wanted to develop a method that could do exactly that. They develop a mouse model based protocol capable of testing the cancer causing capacities of genetic variations within a human patients. To know more about the technique, please listen it.



Please refer to the following article for more information:
Functional annotation of rare gene aberration drivers of pancreatic cancer.
Tsang et al., Nature Communications, Jan. 2016.

SPARCing the ECM - Interview with Meghan Morrissey

Cancer cell metastasis is one of the most important factor that worsens disease prognosis. During metastasis, cells invade blood vessels and other tissues by first passing through a barrier of extra-cellular matrix: a wall of structural components surrounding all cell types. How are cells able to achieve breakdown and invasion of this wall?

Meghan Morrissey and her colleagues started to look at the role played by SPARC family of genes in the process. The SPARC family has been implicated to play a role in cell invasion, but its exact nature was unknown. Using a model of anchor cell invasion in C. elegans, she elegantly and beautifully provides insight into the link. We talk with her to know more.



Please read the original article here:
SPARC Promotes Cell Invasion In Vivo by Decreasing Type IV Collagen Levels in the Basement Membrane  
Morrissey et al., PLoS Genet 12(2): e1005905, 2016.