A recent study published in Nature Cell Biology and conducted by scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Florida has led to the successful reprogramming of lung, breast and bladder cancer cells into healthy cells, according to Collective Evolution. Although the results were limited to human cells in the lab as opposed to human trials, they still have massive implications and potential for the future of cancer treatment.
"We can effectively reprogram them (cancer cells) to become and behave as normal," said Panos Anastasiadis, chair of the Department for Cancer Biology on Mayo Clinic's Florida Campus. "We can take very aggressive tumor cells that are growing and migrating, replenish them with the microRNAs that are deregulated, and that effectively turn them into normal cells."
Restoring the deregulated microRNA levels is important because they stimulate the production of a protein called PLEKHA7, which breaks cell bonds at the moment that cells have replicated to a sufficient degree, according to The Telegraph. Deprivation of PLEKHA7 promotes cancer and stimulates harmful cell growth, according to RT.
Researchers hope that these results will help them develop a technique that can eventually be used in human bodies to "switch off" cancer cells.
"Initial experiments in some aggressive types of cancer are indeed very promising," said Anastasiadis. "It represents an unexpected new biology that provides the code, the software for turning off cancer."
