Migrating toward a cure

New scientific findings could help lead to a cure for cancer. Research that appeared in the Oct. 3 issue of ‘Cell,’ scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Rockefeller University showed that a molecule called ACF7 helps to regulate and power movement from inside the cell. The findings could help scientists understand how cancer cells spread to other parts of the body. Boston University biomedical engineering professor Michael Smith comments on why these findings are so important for cancer research.

Science and Technology: What is ACF7, and how does it work?

Michael Smith: ACF7 is a scaffolding protein. What a scaffolding protein does is it coordinates the functions of other proteins in one unified theme. It coordinates a couple of parts of the cell that turns the cell to the cytoskeleton. Structural components inside the cell function in a coordinated manner, specifically in cell movement.

Science and Technology: Why is cell migration important? Is it more important than cell proliferation?

Michael Smith: Cell migration is really one of the fundamental things that a cell can do. In the process of development in a growing embryo cells don’t just proliferate and then assume a higher organ structure. Cell migration is one of the fundamental mechanisms that leads to higher order structures.

Science and Technology: What makes ACF7 important in cancer research?

Michael Smith: Scientists are motivated to research ACF7 in the context of cancer. Cancer cells migrate away from the host tumor. ACF7 makes cell movement possible, so it’s likely that the less ACF7 a cell has, the less malignant it would become. You can say ACF7 could coordinate tumor cells along the extracellular matrices that communities want to know about.

Science and Technology: Why else is ACF7 important?

Michael Smith: A wound is healed by a plug which is formed, and migration into a wound in different cells mediates repair of that tissue. Cell migration is fundamentally important in that process. If the cells don’t move to repair a wound, then the repair won’t take place. Migration into the wound cite is inhibited in some cases, and it’s critical in the repair process.

Science and Technology: Why do you think this research paper is important? What could the research lead to in the future?

Michael Smith: I think that this paper is a basic science paper. It takes a look at the level of a whole organism. It’s quite likely that there will be other roles for ACF7 down the line that no one’s considered at this point. That’s really supporting the reason we take part in basic science anyway. The things we research now may show up years down the road and end up being fundamental and important in some way.