A neutrophil casting its NET (right) in response to cancer cells.PARK ET AL, SCIENCE TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE (2016)Tumor cells undergoing metastasis prompt neutrophils to extrude stringy DNA webs known as neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) that help the cancer invade other tissues, according to a paper published today (October 19) in Science Translational Medicine. But DNA-degrading nanoparticles can effectively tear down these NETs in mice with cancer, thereby curbing metastasis, the researchers found.
The study shows “that aggressive metastatic cells from breast cancer have this ability to induce a particular function of neutrophils, which is the production of NETs,” said cancer biologist Ilaria Malanchi of the Francis Crick Institute in London who was not involved in the work. “But the more exciting part of the work is that they found a strategy to target this pro-metastatic activity of neutrophils,” she added. “More research is always needed to see if this will help cancer patients, but in mice it’s looking pretty good. It raises hope.”
Neutrophils, the most abundant type of white blood cell, are innate immune cells and the first line of defense against infection. But in terms of cancer research, these cells have received considerably less attention ...
