Scientists reveal a new unlikely weapon against cancer: fat cells

The fat in our body may turn into a secret weapon in our eternal battle against cancer. A new study issued this week indicates that the fat cells can be designed in a treatment that literally is volatile tumors.

Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, research, conducted, Published Tuesday in The nature of biotechnology. Through a series of experiments, they found that beige cells that are re -processed and implants can prevent the growth of five different types of cancer. Researchers say the results may indicate a new, but relatively easy to treat cancer.

Three wide types of fatty cells can be found in our bodies: white, brown and beige. White fat cells are primarily help storing energy, while Brown fat cells Keep our temperature stable by burning sugar and fat when we are cold. Beige cells are somewhere in the middle, capable of performing the functions of white or brown fat cells as needed.

Study 2022 Proposal The brown fat cells caused by the cold can get rid of the resources that cancer cells need to maintain growth. However, the small percentage of fatty cells is only brown, and the cold treatment needed to urge this anti -tumor effect may not be safe to use in most patients with cancer (the only human condition detailed in the study of 2022 included a relatively moderate person who is relatively moderate cancer Lymph nodes are not Hodgkin). Theoretical UCSF researchers can produce this same effect safely by converting white fat cells into beige fat cells – a transformation from scientists Learning now For reliable performance.

Researchers used a version of CRISPR genetics technology to create reintegral beige fat cells, with a specific gene inserted UCP1. Cells have also been modified sometimes to prefer nutrients that some types of cancer are especially hungry for delusional.

In different experiments using Petri dishes, mice and samples taken from real patients, researchers found that engineering fat cells can already suppress the growth of cancer. In general, these fat cells seemed to conflict with five different types of cancer cells (colon cancers, pancreas, prostate cancers, along with two types of breast cancer). The cells appear to work when they are placed away from actual tumors.

“In short, our results provide the results of proving the principle of a therapeutic approach to cancer, called (fatty tampering), which can be developed and dedicated to specific cancer and patients,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

The team’s results are only the beginning. More studies will have to repeat and expand these results before we can know whether the fat cells are a possible treatment for cancer. But researchers are both encouraged through the potential and process of their experimental treatment. As much as we may not want to admit this, we tend to carry a lot of fat in the body, and doctors have long calculated how to get these fats and sometimes transfer them.

A senior researcher in the study, Nadaf Ahitov, director of the UCSF Institute for Human Genetics, said in statement From the university. “These fat cells can be easily processed in the laboratory and placed safely in the body, making it an attractive platform for cellular therapy, including cancer.”

If the team continues to pay its fruits, they imagine a future in which the fat cells are not only treated, but it can be programmed to do other tricks, such as monitoring glucose levels in the blood or absorbing excess iron.