Migrating tumor cells produce a protein that aids them to set up home in bones, researchers show. If a tumor develops metastases, the chances of the patient’s survival will be severely diminished. Cancer cells that leave the primary tumor, travel through the body, and set up home in distal organs such as lungs and bones start to express cathepsin K ~ primarily found only in the bone and is secreted by osteoclasts.
Shastri and Christensen found in cell cultures, cathepsin K activated matrixmetalloprotease-9 (MMP-9), one of the key regulators of tumour development. MMP-9 can digest the bone matrix thereby allowing the arriving cancer cells to adapt and survive in their new environment. Also, MMP-9 activates certain factors that promote angiogenesis which is necessary for bringing nourishment to the tumour cells. Therefore, when cancer cells arrive in the bone, they have many tools to alter their microenvironment and develop into tumours. “Further studies are, however, needed to see how this interplay between cathepsin K and MMP-9 actually plays out in vivo and how it promotes tumour aggressiveness and metastasis,” said Shastri. “Nevertheless, this novel protease network paradigm might be explored as a therapeutic target in future.”
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=155493&CultureCode=en
Osteoclasts (big structures) secrete the protein cathepsin K, which resorbs bone tissue. Credit: Jon Christensen/research group Shastri
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