Migrating tumour cells produce a protein that aids them to set up home in bones, as University of Freiburg researchers show
Cancer cells that migrate to the bone acquire a unique trait: They start to express the protein cathepsin K. Researchers from the University of Freiburg and the BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies have now solved why it is important for the migrating cells to produce this protein. Polymer chemist Prof. Dr. Prasad Shastri and the pharmacist Jon Christensen discovered that cathepsin K activates another protein, which helps the cancer cells to alter their microenvironment so that they are able to develop into tumours.
