Scientists from Sydney's Children's Medical Research Institute have made a groundbreaking discovery about how DNA repair influences cancer cell death after radiation therapy. Their research shows that different DNA repair methods can determine whether cancer cells die silently or trigger an immune response. By understanding these mechanisms, researchers might develop more targeted treatments that enhance the body's ability to fight cancer. The study, published in Nature Cell Biology, could potentially improve cancer treatment and increase cure rates.
"The surprising result of our research is that DNA repair, which normally protects healthy cells, determines how cancer cells die following radiotherapy" - Tony Cesare, CMRI by IANS
Sydney, Jan 14: Australian
researchers have found that DNA repair may determine how cancer cells die
following radiotherapy in a new study that may help improve cancer treatment
and cure rates.
Key Points
1. DNA
repair mechanisms control cancer cell death during radiotherapy
2. Different
repair methods trigger varied immune responses
3. Blocking specific repair processes could enhance treatment effectiveness
To understand how cancerous tumour cells die after
being subjected to radiotherapy, scientists from Sydney's Children's Medical
Research Institute (CMRI) followed irradiated cells for one week after
radiation therapy by using live cell microscope technology, said an
announcement by CMRI, Xinhua News agency reported.
"The surprising result of our research is that
DNA repair, which normally protects healthy cells, determines how cancer cells
die following radiotherapy," said Tony Cesare, head of the CMRI Genome
Integrity Unit.
He said that the study found that DNA repair processes
can recognise when overwhelming damage has occurred, such as from radiotherapy,
and instruct a cancer cell how to die.
When DNA damaged by radiation was repaired by a method
called homologous recombination, they found that cancer cells died during
reproduction, a process called cell division or mitosis.
Cesare said that death during cell division goes
unnoticed by the immune system so does not activate the desired immune
response.
However, he said that cells that dealt with
radiation-damaged DNA through other repair methods survived cell division but
released DNA repair byproducts into the cell.
"To the cell, these repair byproducts look like a
viral or bacterial infection. This causes the cancer cell to die in a manner
that alerts the immune system, which is what we do want," Cesare said.
The team showed that blocking homologous recombination
changed the way cancer cells died to evoke a strong immune response.
The researchers said that the discovery will make it possible
to use drugs that block homologous recombination to force cancer cells treated
with radiotherapy to die in a manner that alerts the immune system to the
existence of a cancer that needs to be destroyed.
The findings, which were published in the journal
Nature Cell Biology, may open up new opportunities to improve treatment and
increase cure rates, said the announcement.
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