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Group leader Salvador Aznar Benitah and first author Gloria Pascual in the Stem Cells and Cancer lab at the IRB Barcelona (M. Minocri, IRB Barcelona).
 07.12.2016

Tumour cells are dependent on fat to start metastasis

A study headed by Salvador Aznar Benitah, ICREA researcher at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) in the Barcelona Science Park, and published today in Nature, identifies metastasis-initiating cells through a specific marker, namely the protein CD36. Their results show that the protein CD36, which absorbs fat from the cell membrane, is an essential factor that determines whether tumour cells become metastatic. IRB Barcelona will co-develop antibodies against CD36 with the potential to treat patients.

 

The study shows that CD36 activity and dependence on lipid (fat) metabolism distinguish metastasis-initiating cells from other tumour cells.The researchers discovered the metastatic CD36+ cells in samples from patients with oral cancer with different degrees of aggressiveness, provided as part of a collaboration with the Hospital Vall d’Hebrón de Barcelona. In the mouth tumours analysed, very few cells were found to have metastasis-initiating capacity. The addition of CD36 expression to tumours that did not cause metastasis made them become metastatic.

Furthermore, the researchers have demonstrated that the effect exerted by CD36 on metastasis is the same for melanoma cells and luminal breast cancer cells. Likewise, statistical analyses of samples from patients reveal that the metastasis of ovarian, bladder and lung cancer are also dependent on CD36.

“Although we have not yet tested this in all tumour types, we can state that CD36 is a general marker of metastatic cells, the first marker I know of that is generally specific to metastasis,” says Salvador Aznar Benitah, head of the Stem Cell and Cancer Lab at IRB Barcelona. “We can now obtain metastatic cells in the laboratory. This will allow us to trace them and to study, for example, their distribution in the tumour, where they anchor when they leave it, or why they are so sensitive to fat, among other questions,” adds the first author of the study Gloria Pascual.

Dr. Aznar-Benitah pointed that “We expect this study to have a big impact on the scientific community and to further advances in metastasis research, and we hope to be able to validate the potential of CD36 as an anti-metastasis treatment. Things like this don’t happen every day.”

IRB Barcelona has applied for IP protection of the results, and the researchers are working with MRC Technology in the UK to co-develop new antibody-based therapeutics against CD36 that are suitable for treatment of patients in a range of cancers. If the development of the novel therapeutic was successful, a new product could be available in 5-10 years.

► For further information IRB Barcelona website [+]