The connection between a fatal car accident and a lack of a sniper is simple enough to understand. However, have you ever thought that there could be a connection between inadequate sleep and breast cancer? 101 women newly diagnosed with breast cancer participated in a study in 2012 that tried to establish that the lack of sleep in such women led to more aggressive rains.
A research team from Michigan State University (USA) published a report in Genes and cancer who tried to portray the relationship between melatonin, a hormone involved in sleep-sleep cycles with breast cancer stem cells, and also tried to determine the promise of melatonin as a drug to treat cancer.
To continue research in a clinical environment, scientists have created breast cancer cells, known as mammaspheres. This three-dimensional cell mixture was obtained with a similar configuration that can be detected in a real tumor in the body, which, as perceived, is the trigger behind the unchained tumor progression and recurrence. David Arnost, a professor at the University of Michigan and co-author of the study, best explains the importance of using the mammosphere method, saying: “You can watch the bears at the zoo, but you understand the behavior of the bear by seeing them in the wild. Similarly, an understanding of the expression of genes in their natural environment shows how they interact in disease conditions.
Cancer cells were used in the study that were classified as ER receptor positive. At the first stage of the study, the effect of melatonin on the ability of estrogen to increase the progress and size of mamma spheres was studied. At the second stage, the team decided to dig a little deeper and studied the effect of melatonin in terms of genes and proteins. Transition through the cell wall, estrogen, which is a steroid hormone, integrates the receptor inside the cell, which moves into the cell nucleus to that particular region of DNA that can stimulate genes. The protein, known as OCT4, is produced by one of these activated genes. This plays a key function in the ability of stem cells to indefinitely obtain reproductions of themselves and to maintain its non-specialized state of stem cells. The expansion of ER-positive breast cancer cells is already under way through an estrogen-initiated cell pathway. When melatonin was added to the cells, the study led to the fact that the estrogen-and BPA-enthused combination of the estrogen receptor to the OCT4 gene in the mammosphere was suppressed.
Having compiled these reflections, the research team has advanced that, using the mummosphere technique, breast cancer tumor growth can be suppressed by inhibiting the genes responsible for managing stem cells as breast cancer stem cells. Melatonin, a key factor in the whole process, is produced by the pineal gland of the brain, which is active only at night, which, when released, can cause sleep. If, however, the patient suffers from sleep disorders such as insomnia, the likelihood of melatonin levels as an effective method of blocking the growth of estrogen-induced cancer is significantly reduced.
James Trozco, MSU laboratory, improved the mammography technique, sees that these results of breast cancer in a greater perspective. He says: “This work establishes the principle that the growth of cancer stem cells can be regulated by natural hormones, and provides an important new method for screening chemicals for effects on cancer, as well as identifying potential new drugs for use in the clinic. "
