Source: Stanford University
Date: December 22, 2010
Summary:
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered that many cancer cells carry the seeds of their own destruction — a protein on the cell surface that signals circulating immune cells to engulf and digest them. On cancer cells, this “eat me” signal is counteracted by a separate “don’t eat me” signal that was described in an earlier study. The two discoveries may lead to better cancer therapies, and also solve a mystery about why a previously reported cancer therapy is not more toxic.
In the study published Dec. 22 in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers discovered that many forms of cancer display the protein calreticulin, or CRT, which invites immune cells called macrophages to engulf and destroy them. The reason most cancer cells are not destroyed by macrophages is that they also display another molecule, a “don’t eat me” signal, called CD47, which counteracts the CRT signal.
