PLoS ONE：科学家发现细菌的信号分子或可有效杀灭胰腺癌细胞

癌症，一个多么可怕的名词，当癌细胞扩散到机体不同组织后其将会危及个体的生命，近日，刊登在国际杂志PLoS ONE上的一篇研究论文中，来自密苏里大学科学家通过研究发现，对细菌“交流”系统非常关键的分子进行操作就可以有效抑制癌细胞的扩散，细菌的“交流”系统或可将癌细胞置于死地。

研究者Kumar表示，在感染期间，细菌会释放一些分子来使其和其它细菌进行交流，依赖于释放的特殊类型“交流”分子，细菌就会告知同类不断进行增殖，从而逃避机体免疫系统的“狙杀”，本文中研究者发现，如果将细菌这种信号分子引入到抑制癌细胞研究上，那么这种信号分子将不仅会抑制癌细胞的扩散，而且还会促进癌细胞死亡。

下一步研究人员将寻找一种有效的方法将细菌的信号分子引入到癌细胞中来进行研究，目前最大的障碍就是没有一种有效的方法可以将信号分子引入到癌细胞中；而研究者当前的工作重点则是开发一种方法来治疗患癌动物观察疗法是否有效，后期如果进行一定的动物试验，那么研究者们将有望进入临床研究阶段，进而开发出治疗癌症的新型靶向疗法了。（转化医学网360zhyx.com）

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转化医学网推荐的原文摘要：

Bacterial Quorum Sensing Molecule N-3-Oxo-Dodecanoyl-L-Homoserine Lactone Causes Direct Cytotoxicity and Reduced Cell Motility in Human Pancreatic Carcinoma Cells
PLoS One DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0106480
Ashwath S. Kumar,Jeffrey N. Bryan,Senthil R. Kumar
In spite of chemotherapeutic and surgical advances, pancreatic cancer continues to have a dismal prognosis. Metastasis due to tumor cell migration remains the most critical challenge in treating pancreatic cancer, and conventional chemotherapy is rarely curative. In the quest for more novel molecules to fight this disease, we tested the hypothesis that the Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum sensing signal molecule N-3-oxo-dodecanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (O-DDHSL) would be cytotoxic to and reduce mobility of pancreatic carcinoma cells (Panc-1 and Aspc-1). Results showed a decrease in cell viability from apoptosis, diminished colony formation, and inhibition of migration of the evaluated pancreatic carcinoma cell lines. Also, cell viability decreased in the presence of O-DDHSL when cells were grown in matrigel basement membrane matrix. While messenger RNA for IQGAP-1 decreased in Panc-1 and HPDE cells upon exposure to O-DDHSL, no change was observed in Aspc-1 cells. Cofilin mRNA expression was found to be increased in both HPDE and Panc-1 cells with marginal decrease in Aspc-1 cells. RhoC, a Rho-family GTPase involved in cell motility, increased in the presence of O-DDHSL, suggesting a possible compensatory response to alteration in other migration associated genes. Our results indicate that O-DDHSL could be an effective biomolecule in eukaryotic systems with multimodal function for essential molecular targeting in pancreatic cancer.