3月2日,德國馬克斯普朗克心肺研究所2日發(fā)表聲明說,，“封鎖”患乳腺癌實驗鼠癌細胞內的一種受體蛋白質能阻止癌細胞轉移。該研究或許有助于開發(fā)阻止乳腺癌患者體內癌細胞轉移的新方法,。
乳腺癌是女性最常見的惡性腫瘤之一,，幾乎每10名女性中就有一人患這種病，患者中約四分之一的人會罹患惡性乳腺癌,。如患上這種乳腺癌,，癌細胞極易出現轉移。
一般來講,，乳腺癌如及早發(fā)現,，治愈率相對較高，癌細胞一旦轉移,，完全治愈的可能性則微乎其微,。因此，防止乳腺癌轉移至關重要,。
馬克斯普朗克心肺研究所研究人員最新發(fā)現,，抑制實驗鼠乳腺癌細胞中受體蛋白Plexin B1的基因表達后,，癌細胞的肺轉移現象“明顯減少”。
研究人員表示,，雖然這種方法在多大程度上適用于人類尚不清楚,，但希望能借此找到一種新途徑，防止乳腺癌的擴散,。(生物谷Bioon.com)
doi: doi:10.1172/JCI60568
PMC:
PMID:
ErbB-2 signals through Plexin-B1 to promote breast cancer metastasis
ThomasWorzfeld, JakubM. Swiercz, MarioLooso, BeateK. Straub, KishorK. Sivaraj, Stefan Offermanns JClinInvest.
Diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer is associated with a very poor prognosis. New therapeutic targets are urgently needed, but their development is hampered by a lack of understanding of the mechanisms leading to tumor metastasis. Exemplifying this is the fact that the approximately 30% of all breast cancers overexpressing the receptor tyrosine kinase ErbB-2 are characterized by high metastatic potential and poor prognosis, but the signaling events downstream of ErbB-2 that drive cancer cell invasion and metastasis remain incompletely understood. Here we show that overexpression of ErbB-2 in human breast cancer cell lines leads to phosphorylation and activation of the semaphorin receptor Plexin-B1. This was required for ErbB-2–dependent activation of the pro-metastatic small GTPases RhoA and RhoC and promoted invasive behavior of human breast cancer cells. In a mouse model of ErbB-2–overexpressing breast cancer, ablation of the gene encoding Plexin-B1 strongly reduced the occurrence of metastases. Moreover, in human patients with ErbB-2–overexpressing breast cancer, low levels of Plexin-B1 expression correlated with good prognosis. Our data suggest that Plexin-B1 represents a new candidate therapeutic target for treating patients with ErbB-2–positive breast cancer.
