Cancer has got a bad wellness reputation – and rightly so – but you shouldn’t be too quick to judge the enzymes that cancerous cells release. This is according to researchers from the University of East Anglia, who say that enzymes released by cancerous cells have a protective function and are not one of the ‘bad guys’.
So why shouldn’t you tar the enzymes with the same brush? The study, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, found the MMP-8 enzyme sent a signal to the immune system to attack the tumour. This stands to reason, as the wellbeing of patients whose breast tumours have more of this enzyme seems to improve the most. In fact, Cancer Research UK praised the research for providing ‘very early clues’ as to how the enzyme might recruit cells to fight breast cancer.
Working with clinicians at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, scientists from UEA examined the patterns of MMPs in breast tumours from patients. Up until now, health experts thought that the production of MMPs by breast cancer cells helped to promote cancer growth, and lead researcher Professor Dylan Edwards, from UEA’s School of Biological Sciences, explained that this is because MMP-8-producing breast cancer cells also produce two other inflammatory factors (IL-6 and IL-8) that have previously been shown to promote cancer.
According to Professor Edwards, ‘They were once thought to act like ‘molecular scissors’ to snip away at the scaffolding structures outside cells and clear a path for the cancer cells to invade and spread to other organs. However, breast tumour cells that over-produce MMP-8 don’t survive long-term – the enzyme stops them growing. We now think that in tumours, MMP-8 acts as a sort of ‘find me’ signal to the immune system, which then becomes activated to attack the tumour, which may help to explain its protective function.’
Dr Emma Smith, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, noted, ‘This study provides very early clues as to how the MMP-8 protein might actually play the role of a ‘good cop’ and recruit immune cells to fight breast cancer. And, rather than seeing the MMP-8 protein as a ‘bad cop’ in breast cancer, recent research has shown that levels of this protein are raised in women who do relatively well. Yet, until now, we haven’t known why this should be the case. But these are early findings from cells grown in a lab, and more research is needed to see if the molecules found by the scientists alert immune cells to cancers in women.’
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