Dysfunction junction
Shutting down a paracrine loop that promotes brain metastases
Researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have shown brain metastases build gap junctions to flood neighboring astrocytes with pro-inflammatory signaling molecules, causing the cells to secrete cytokines that fuel tumor growth via a paracrine feedback loop. The team has launched a pilot clinical study to see whether a gap junction inhibitor can kill the cycle and stem cancer growth in patients with recurrent brain metastases.
"We can potentially target host microenvironmental interactions specifically in the brain, which as far as I know has never been seen before," said Adrienne Boire, a neuro-oncologist at MSKCC and a neurology fellow in the lab of Joan Massagué. Boire co-authored the preclinical study, published in Nature last month, and is leading the Phase 0 trial...