What is it about?
Astrocyte cells clean debris in the brain and also have other functions. We found in this study that astrocytes influence brain tumor growth by controlling expression of proteins on the tumor cells that are responsible for their survival and growth.
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Photo by Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Understanding what contributes to brain tumor growth and survival will help in devising strategies to intervene them, and stop the tumor growth. This work contributes to revealing one such tumor promoting strategy.
Perspectives
Astrocyte cells are abundant in the brain, and thus these cells are used by tumors to support themselves. We noticed that this theme is true for both cancer cells in kids and adults. Thus, paying attention to how resident cells in the body react to tumor cells and how they are manipulated to tumor cells' benefit is an important consideration when developing treatments to target tumor cells.
Professor Ramani Ramchandran
Medical College of Wisconsin
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Astrocytes influence medulloblastoma phenotypes and CD133 surface expression, PLoS ONE, July 2020, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235852.
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