大鼠胰腺癌动物模型成功制作用具有重大意义
Mice mimic pancreatic cancer
New animal model could help catch hidden lethal tumours.11 December 2003
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Researchers have created the first mice that mimic pancreatic cancer, a common but often-ignored killer. The animals should help to improve diagnosis and to develop drugs for the disease.
Around 30,000 people in the United States and 60,000 in Europe are diagnosed each year with cancer of the pancreas, a small organ that helps to digest and metabolize food. Because tumours are often detected after having spread, the cancer is one of the most virulent. Most patients die within months.
Two research groups have now created mice that grow pancreatic tumours, by genetically engineering key cancer-causing genes. David Tuveson of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and his colleagues did one study1; Ron DePinho at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and his team the other2.
The teams hope to identify telltale blood molecules that warn of a burgeoning but hidden tumour. Tuveson's team has already found a group of such proteins circulating in cancerous mice, but not healthy ones.
To figure out whether the same molecules flag up tumours in humans, the results could be compared with those from ongoing analyses of patients' blood samples, says pancreatic-cancer expert James Abbruzzese of the University of Texas in Houston. "It will really help to focus those studies," he says.
Mutant mice
Cancer of the pancreas occurs when specific genetic mutations trigger the runaway growth of tumour cells. These mutations may be inherited or arise spontaneously. Smoking is also thought to boost the risk of pancreatic cancer, accounting for some 30% of spontaneous cases.
The researchers engineered mice so that they carried copies of one or two of the mutant genes commonly found in human tumours, called Kras and Ink4a/Arf. DePinho's mice, which had changes in both genes, died by 11 weeks of age - a "stunning recapitulation of the human disease", he says.
Although researchers have made animal models of pancreatic cancer before, these were far less sophisticated, says Abbruzzese. One hope is that the new models will help scientists to test new, targeted drugs to replace the surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy with which today's tumours are blasted.
- Hingorani, S. R. et al. Preinvasive and invasive ductal pancreatic cancer and its early detection in the mouse. Cancer Cell, published online, doi:10.1016/S153561080300309 (2003). |Article|
- Aguirre, A. J. et al. Activated Kras and Ink4a/Arf deficiency cooperate to produce metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in the mouse. Genes and Development, 17, (2003). |Homepage|
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