Cancer : According to the latest research reported in Nature, scientists discovered a method by which aspirin boosts the immune system, potentially reducing the spread of some cancers. According to the researchers, discovering the process will help with ongoing clinical trials and may lead to the tailored use of aspirin to limit the spread of sensitive cancer types.
Researchers investigate the spread of cancer prevention drugs
Researchers hope that this study will contribute in the development of more effective cancer progression prevention drugs. Previous research on cancer patients has indicated that taking low-dose aspirin on a daily basis slows the spread of numerous cancers, including breast, colon, and prostate cancer, spurring current clinical trials.
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unclear how aspirin helped prevent metastases
However, until now, it was unclear how aspirin helped prevent metastases. Researchers from the University of Cambridge led the investigation. They claim that the finding of how aspirin lowers cancer metastasis was fortuitous.
They were looking into the process of metastasis because, while cancer begins in one site, 90% of cancer deaths occur when the disease spreads to other parts of the body.
The scientists wanted to learn more about how the immune system reacts to metastasis because when cancer cells break away from their original tumour and move to another section of the body, they are especially vulnerable to immune attack.
The immune system can detect and eliminate these lone cancer cells more efficiently than cancer cells within larger starting tumours, which frequently create an environment that inhibits the immune system.
The researchers previously analysed 810 genes in mice and discovered 15 that influenced cancer spread. They discovered that animals lacking a gene that makes a protein called ARHGEF1 had lower rates of metastasis to the lungs and liver from diverse primary tumours.
The researchers discovered that ARHGEF1 lowers a type of immune cell known as a T cell, which may detect and kill metastatic cancer cells.
To create medicines based on this discovery, they needed to figure out how to target it with medications. The scientists tracked signals in the cell to discover that ARHGEF1 is activated when T cells are exposed to the clotting agent thromboxane A2 (TXA2).
This was a surprise discovery for the scientists because TXA2 is already well-known and associated with how aspirin works.
This new study discovered that aspirin protects cancer from spreading by reducing TXA2 and freeing T cells from repression. They used a melanoma mouse model to demonstrate that giving mice aspirin reduced the frequency of metastases relative to control mice, and this was dependent on releasing T cells from TXA2 repression.
The researchers warn that aspirin might have major adverse effects in some people, and clinical trials are currently underway to investigate how to use it safely and efficiently to prevent cancer spread.
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