Cancer cells can trigger own suicide
Many cancer cells are equipped with a protein on their surface that makes it possible for them to send their self-destruction code to the body’s immune system.
According to previous studies, a molecule on the surface of cancer and non-cancer cells, called CD47, allows these cells to avoid being destructed by sending the opposite signal, "Don’t eat me" to immune cells.
Stanford University researchers identified a new antibody that blocks the CD47 activity and the transfer of the "Don’t eat me" signal through an unidentified mechanism.
Blocking the CD47 signal along with the transfer of the "eat me" signal sent by the protein calreticulin, or CRT accelerates the death of the cancerous cells, revealed a study published in Science Translational Medicine.
Calreticulin is found on a variety of cancer cells, including some types of leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and bladder, brain and ovarian cancers, the study showed.
Researchers are optimistic that they would soon be able to find out the mechanism through which calreticulin acts, hoping that "any of these mechanisms offer potential new ways to treat the disease by interfering with those processes."
Source: presstv.ir
