Researchers from the Francis Crick Institute have found that some particularly aggressive lung cancer cells can develop their own electric network, like that seen in the body’s nervous system.
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is one of the hardest types of cancer to treat and has often already spread by the time people are diagnosed. It mainly arises from neuroendocrine (NE) cells, which help regulate air and blood flow in the lungs.
In research published today in Nature, the team at the Crick looked for electrical activity in human and mouse SCLC samples, aiming to determine whether such activity may underpin the aggressiveness of this cancer type.
Using neuroscience techniques, they found that the SCLC cells had gone ‘off grid’. They were able to generate their own electrical activity, building their own electrical network within the tumour, and becoming independent of the body’s main electrical supply, including the nerves surrounding the tumour.
Keeping cancer cells fueled
The researchers investigated how this energy was generated because firing electrical signals requires a lot of energy.
Over time, the team noted important changes in gene expression as the cancer progressed, resulting in some cells losing their NE identity and becoming non-neuroendocrine (non-NE) cancer cells.
They also observed that together, these cancer cells collaborated to promote tumour development. Genes enabling the electrical communication were switched on in the NE cells, and genes relating to producing a supportive environment were switched on in the non-NE cells.
The researchers saw that the NE and non-NE cells were exhibiting a similar relationship to that of neurons and astroglia – the electrical brain cells and the neighbouring housekeeping cells that support them. Like processes seen in the brain, the non-NE cells were shuttling lactate, an alternative and efficient energy source for NE cells, to help power their electrical activity. Blocking the lactate pump decreased the electrical activity of NE cells, showing that this relationship is important for the tumour to support itself.
Credit: Francis Crick Institute
Teaser image credit: Michael-Bogdan Margineanu