MicroRNAs Help Cancer Patients Fight Spread of Tumors

Researchers at Princeton University have recently discovered that microRNAs, also known as small bits of genetic material that are capable of repressing the expression of certain genes, can actually work as therapeutic targets and predictors of metastatic tumors. 

MicroRNAs consist of non-coding RNAs that play essential roles in the regulation of gene expression. In other words, these molecules can actually fine tune the express of as much as 30 percent of all mammalian protein-encoding genes. 

As bone metastasis occurs in approximately 70 percent of patients suffering from late-stage cancers, lead study author Yibin Kang, Princeton's Warmer-Lamber/Parke-Davis Professor Molecular Biology notes that when tumors invade the bone, osteoclasts that normally break down take over the cells and new material rapidly grows. In turn, this overgrowth leads to bone fracture, nerve damage and extreme pain. 

"The tumor uses the osteoclasts as forced labor," Kang said, via a press release, who is a member of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and adviser to Brian Ell, a graduate student in the Princeton Department of Molecular Biology and first author on the study. Kang and Ell worked with scientists at the IRCCS Scientific Institute of Romagna for the Study and Treatment of Cancer in Meldola, Italy, and the University Cancer Center in Hamburg, Germany. 

Fortunately, microRNAs can help reduce forced labor that inhibits osteoclast proteins. The study authors observed bones that exhibited metastasis that developed significantly fewer lesions when injected with microRNAs. Findings suggest that these regulations could provide effective treatment targets for bone metastasis. 

"This [study] represents significant insight into our understanding of the organ-specific function and pathological activity of microRNAs, which could lead to improvements in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of bone metastases and elucidates a unique aspect of the bone microenvironment to support tumor growth in bone," background information from the study notes, via the release. 

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More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Cell.