Balloons are not the only things that pop

Over 80 percent of all cancer deaths are due to secondary tumor formation—otherwise known as cancer metastasis. In order for a secondary tumor to form, cancer cells must migrate through spaces smaller than 5µm2—that is smaller than a grain of sand! This is not an easy feat, but with nuclear “popping,” cells may be metastasizing easier than originally thought. If scientists can figure out how to target a popping cell, then they may be able to kill the most dangerous cells before they get to their final destinations.

New nanotechnology techniques that create mini-obstacle courses for cells to move through can allow scientists to visualize cancer cells squishing through small spaces, as they would in the body. Scientists in the Lammerding lab at Cornell University used such obstacle courses to visualize cancer cell nuclei “popping” like balloons under pressure. When the nucleus, or the brains, of the cancerous cell pops, its DNA occasionally spilled out of the nucleus and was exposed to the cell cytoplasm. Within hours of such a pop, the nucleus could repack itself and the DNA, and continue migrating toward its new home.

Scientists initially hypothesized that nuclei popping would result in cell death, but more than 98 percent of these popping cancer cells survive. In fact, these cells do not just survive, they thrive, as they continue to migrate through the obstacle course. DNA that was exposed to cell cytoplasm due to the popping of the nucleus is hypothesized to result in mutations that may allow the cancer cell to become more aggressive, and capable of migrating more successfully—which might explain in part how cancerous cells invade new tissues and could help arm doctors in the battle against cancer

metastasis.

Please see the news release published in Science, for more information on this topic.