(Press-News.org) Skin cancer is the most common of all cancers, and melanoma, which accounts for 2% of skin cancer cases, is responsible for nearly all skin cancer deaths. Melanoma rates in the US have been rising rapidly over the last 30 years, and although scientists have managed to identify key risk factors, melanoma's modus operandi has eluded the world of medical research.
A new Tel Aviv University study published in Molecular Cell sheds light on the precise trigger that causes melanoma cancer cells to transform from non-invasive cells to invasive killer agents, pinpointing the precise place in the process where "traveling" cancer turns lethal. The research was led by Dr. Carmit Levy of the Department of Human Genetics and Biochemistry at TAU's Sackler School of Medicine and conducted by a team of researchers from TAU, the Technion Institute of Technology, the Sheba Medical Center, the Institut Gustave Roussy and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
If melanoma is caught in time, it can be removed and the patient's life saved. But once melanoma invades the bloodstream, turning metastatic, an aggressive treatment must be applied. When and how the transformation into aggressive invasion took place was until now a mystery.
Understanding the skin
"To understand melanoma, I had to obtain a deep understanding about the structure and function of normal skin," said Dr. Levy, "Melanoma is a cancer that originates in the epidermis, and in its aggressive form it will invade the dermis, a lower layer, where it eventually invades the bloodstream or lymph vessels, causing metastasis in other organs of the body. But before invading the dermis, melanoma cells surprisingly extend upward, then switch directions to invade.
"It occurred to me that there had to be a trigger in the microenvironment of the skin that made the melanoma cells 'invasive,'" Dr. Levy continued. "Using the evolutionary logic of the tumor, why spend the energy going up when you can just use your energy to go down and become malignant?"
After collecting samples of normal skin cells and melanoma cells from patients at hospitals around Israel, the researchers mixed normal and cancerous cells and performed gene analysis expression to study the traveling cancer's behavior. They found that, completely independently of any mutation acquisition, the microenvironment alone drove melanoma metastasis.
"Normal skin cells are not supposed to 'travel,'" said Dr. Levy. "We found that when melanoma is situated at the top layer, a trigger sends it down to the dermis and then further down to invade blood vessels. If we could stop it at the top layer, block it from invading the bloodstream, we could stop the progression of the cancer."
A new way of saving lives
The researchers found that the direct contact of melanoma cells with the remote epidermal layer triggered an invasion via the activation of "Notch signaling," which turns on a set of genes that promotes changes in melanoma cells, rendering them invasive. According to the study, when a molecule expressed on a cell membrane -- a spike on the surface of a cell, called a ligand -- comes into contact with a melanoma cell, it triggers the transformation of melanoma into an invasive, lethal agent.
"When I saw the results, I jumped out of the room and shouted, 'We got it!'" Dr. Levy said. "Now that we know the triggers of melanoma transformation and the kind of signalling that leads to that transformation, we know what to block. The trick was to solve the mystery, and we did. There are many drugs in existence that can block the Notch signalling responsible for that transformation. Maybe, in the future, people will be able to rub some substance on their skin as a prevention measure."
Dr. Levy is continuing to explore the research with the end goal of providing medical professionals with another tool of analysis of different stages of melanoma. "Melanoma is a cancer with a very long gestation period," said Dr. Levy. "If you can provide a simple kit with precise answers, you can catch it at the beginning stage and hopefully save lives."
INFORMATION:
American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's most influential, most comprehensive, and most sought-after center of higher learning, Tel Aviv University (TAU). US News & World Report's Best Global Universities Rankings rate TAU as #148 in the world, and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings rank TAU Israel's top university. It is one of a handful of elite international universities rated as the best producers of successful startups, and TAU alumni rank #9 in the world for the amount of venture capital they attract.
A leader in the pan-disciplinary approach to education, TAU is internationally recognized for the scope and groundbreaking nature of its research and scholarship -- attracting world-class faculty and consistently producing cutting-edge work with profound implications for the future.
Money can be a significant source of conflict in relationships, particularly during stressful times. New research from North Carolina State University details techniques romantic couples can use to address financial uncertainty, highlighting the importance of communication in managing uncertainty and reducing stress.
"Regardless of income level, I found that couples are uncertain about money--whether that's how to put food on the table or whether to sell a second home," says Lynsey Romo, an assistant professor of communication at NC State. "During tough financial times, ...
Compact optical transmission possibilities are of great interest in faster and more energy-efficient data exchange between electronic chips. One component serving this application is the Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) which is able to convert electronic signals into optical signals. Scientists of the KIT and the ETH in Zurich developed a plasmonic MZM of only 12.5 micrometers length which converts digital electrical signals into optical signals at a rate of up to 108 gigabit per second, and presented this device in the "Nature Photonics" scientific journal. (DOI 10.1038/nphoton.2015.127).
"Optical ...
The first comprehensive study of its kind finds weight cycling, repeated cycles of intentional weight loss followed by regain, was not associated with overall risk of cancer in men or women. The study by American Cancer Society investigators is the largest to date to investigate weight cycling with cancer risk. It appears early online in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
The authors of the report found weight cycling was not associated with overall risk of cancer in men or women after adjusting for body mass index and other factors. Weight cycling was also not associated ...
The brain is amazingly complex, with around 86 billion nerve cells. The challenge for researchers to create bench-top brain tissue from which they can learn about how the brain functions, is an extremely difficult one.
Researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) have taken a step closer to meeting this challenge, by developing a 3D printed layered structure incorporating neural cells, that mimics the structure of brain tissue.
The value of bench-top brain tissue is huge. Pharmaceutical companies spend millions of dollars testing therapeutic ...
Medications commonly used to treat dementia could result in harmful weight loss, according to UC San Francisco researchers, and clinicians need to account for this risk when prescribing these drugs to older adults, they said.
Their study appears online and in the August issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
"This is very relevant to patient care because unintentional weight loss in older adults is associated with many adverse outcomes, including increased rates of institutionalization and mortality, a decline in functional status, and poorer quality ...
This news release is available in French.
TORONTO/MONTREAL - Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common cause of physical disability in children. It has historically been considered to be caused by factors such as birth asphyxia, stroke and infections in the developing brain of babies. In a new game-changing Canadian study, a research team from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) has uncovered strong evidence for genetic causes of cerebral palsy that turns experts' understanding ...
Picky eating among children is a common but burdensome problem that can result in poor nutrition for kids, family conflict, and frustrated parents.
Although many families see picky eating as a phase, a new study from Duke Medicine finds moderate and severe picky eating often coincides with serious childhood issues such as depression and anxiety that may need intervention.
According to the study, published August 3 in the journal Pediatrics, more than 20 percent of children ages 2 to 6 are selective eaters. Of them, nearly 18 percent were classified as moderately picky. ...
PULLMAN, Wash.--Washington State University researchers say environmental factors are having an underappreciated effect on the course of disease and evolution by prompting genetic mutations through epigenetics, a process by which genes are turned on and off independent of an organism's DNA sequence.
Their assertion is a dramatic shift in how we might think of disease and evolution's underlying biology and "changes how we think about where things come from," said Michael Skinner, founding director of the Center for Reproductive Biology in WSU's School of Biological Sciences.
Skinner ...
Abstinence is the best way to avoid drug addiction. But in many societies, drug use is the norm, not the exception, especially by youth. What keeps the majority of users from becoming addicted? How drugs are taken has something to do with it, according to pharmacology researchers at the University of Montreal. "Why do some drug users become addicts? The amount of drugs they take over time is one factor, but the speed with which the substance enters and exits the brain can be just as important," explained Professor Anne-Noël Samaha, who supervised the study into how ...
Parents who joke and pretend with their children are teaching them important life skills, research by the University of Sheffield has revealed.
The study showed that children as young as 16 months old naturally learn the difference between joking and pretending by picking up on their parents' cues.
It also showed understanding the difference between the two allows children the opportunity to learn, imagine, bond, and think in abstract ways.
Researchers from the University's Department of Psychology carried out two studies; one involved parents being asked to joke ...
