Stem cell scientists have revealed the origins of a common ovarian cancer by modeling fallopian tube tissues, allowing them to characterize how a genetic mutation puts women at high risk for this cancer. The created tissues, known as organoids, hold potential for predicting which individuals will develop ovarian cancer years or even decades in advance, allowing for early detection and prevention strategies.
Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of gynecologic cancer deaths in the U.S., in part because symptoms are often subtle and most tumors elude detection until they are in advanced stages and have spread past the ovaries. While the lifetime risk of developing ovarian cancer is less than 2% for the general female population, the estimated risk for women who carry a mutation in the so-called BRCA-1 gene is between 35% and 70%, according to the American Cancer Society.
Faced with such steep odds, some women with BRCA-1 mutations choose to have their breasts or ovaries and fallopian tubes surgically removed even though they may never develop cancers in these tissues. The new study findings, published in Cell Reports, could help physicians pinpoint which of these women are most likely to develop ovarian cancer in the future—and which are not—and pursue new ways to block the process or treat the cancer.
“We created these fallopian organoids using cells from women with BRCA-1 mutations who had ovarian cancer," explained the senior author. "Our data supports recent research indicating that ovarian cancer in these patients actually begins with cancerous lesions in the fallopian tube linings. If we can detect these abnormalities at the outset, we may be able to short-circuit the ovarian cancer."
To make their discoveries, the research team generated induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs), which can produce any type of cell. They started with blood samples taken from two groups of women: young ovarian cancer patients who had the BRCA-1 mutation and a control group of healthy women. Investigators then used the iPSCs to produce organoids modeling the lining of fallopian tubes and compared the organoids in the two groups.
"We were surprised to find multiple cellular pathologies consistent with cancer development only in the organoids from the BRCA-1 patients," said the project scientist and first author of the Cell Reports study. "Organoids derived from women with the most aggressive ovarian cancer displayed the most severe organoid pathology."
Besides showing how ovarian cancer is "seeded" in the fallopian tubes of women with mutated BRCA-1, the organoid technology potentially can be used to determine if a drug might work against the disease in an individual, Svendsen said. Each organoid carries the genes of the person who provided the blood sample, making it a "twin" of that person's own fallopian tube linings. Multiple drugs can be tested on the organoids without exposing the patient to them.
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(21)01642-9
http://sciencemission.com/site/index.php?page=news&type=view&id=cancer%2Fhuman-ipsc-derived&filter=22
How ovarian cancer starts in high-risk women
- 1,654 views
- Added
Latest News
DNA attached to nanoparticl…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Mar
Neighboring synapses shape…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Mar
Complete vascularization of…
By newseditor
Posted 28 Mar
Immune cells identified as…
By newseditor
Posted 28 Mar
TB blood test which could d…
By newseditor
Posted 27 Mar
Other Top Stories
The biological clock influences immune response efficiency
Read more
Immune cell atlas of the human kidney
Read more
Reversing multiple sclerosis in mice by targeting specific T cell s…
Read more
Proteomics of T cell differentiation!
Read more
A protein could play a key role in inflammatory response in brain
Read more
Protocols
Spatial proteomics in neuro…
By newseditor
Posted 28 Mar
All-optical presynaptic pla…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
Epigenomic tomography for p…
By newseditor
Posted 20 Mar
A mouse DRG genetic toolkit…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Mar
An optogenetic method for t…
By newseditor
Posted 13 Mar
Publications
DNA corona on nanoparticles…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Mar
Co-dependent excitatory and…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Mar
A microfluidic platform int…
By newseditor
Posted 28 Mar
Salmonella manipulates macr…
By newseditor
Posted 28 Mar
BHLHE40/41 regulate microgl…
By newseditor
Posted 28 Mar
Presentations
Hydrogels in Drug Delivery
By newseditor
Posted 12 Apr
Lipids
By newseditor
Posted 31 Dec
Cell biology of carbohydrat…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Nov
RNA interference (RNAi)
By newseditor
Posted 23 Oct
RNA structure and functions
By newseditor
Posted 19 Oct
Posters
A chemical biology/modular…
By newseditor
Posted 22 Aug
Single-molecule covalent ma…
By newseditor
Posted 04 Jul
ASCO-2020-HEALTH SERVICES R…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-HEAD AND NECK CANCER
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-GENITOURINARY CAN…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar