U of G prof looks as how the body responds to stress
Stress is a necessary ailment of life that we experience every day. Some days, particularly around exam season, stress levels can raise to uncomfortable levels that last weeks or months and border on chronic. Other days, stress is as limited as deciding whether to get fries or salad with that burger.
It is how our body, namely cancer cells, responds to stress that interests James Uniacke, a molecular and cellular biology professor here at the U of G.
When cells are stressed they, “take a vacation,” which stops processes such as protein synthesis. The way relatively healthy cells act when they are stressed is opposite to how cancerous cells act. Uniacke found that cancer cells don’t go on vacation when they’re stressed out. “In this sort of environment, a normal cell would die, especially when it’s exposed to prolonged conditions like this. Cancer cells adapt quite nicely.”
The main stressor Uniacke is studying is lack of oxygen in cells, also known as hypoxia. “Hypoxic tumours are actually very aggressive, so we’re trying to prevent cells from adapting to hypoxia.” Most types of cancer form hypoxic tumours, so understanding how these cells adapt to and survive in low-oxygen environments – where normal cells would die – is important.
While stress-related cancer would be among the “worst case scenarios” that comes from people’s over anxiousness, stress can lead to a plethora of other illnesses and poor health patterns, such as lowered immunity, sleeping issues, headaches, and depression.
Recent research out of Ohio State University suggests that our own bodies help turn cancer against us by turning on a ‘master switch’ gene known as ATF3, which is expressed in response to stressful conditions in all types of cells.
“If your body does not help cancer cells, they cannot spread as far. So really, the rest of the cells in the body help cancer cells to move, to set up shop at distant sites. And one of the unifying themes here is stress,” said Professor Tsonwin Hai of OSU. “If the body is in perfect balance, there isn’t much of a problem. When the body gets stressed, that changes the immune system, and the immune system is a double-edged sword.”
As far as treatments are concerned, Uniacke said it all begins with understanding how a cancer cell adapts. Adaptation “makes it a prime target to treat with drugs, because your body doesn’t utilize these mechanisms,” added Uniacke, who also stated that normal cells would not be affected because they are not normally exposed to low-oxygen levels.
The drug would be delivered directly to the tumour using injection or cream, depending on the tumour’s location. “It’s a very attractive target for drug therapy,” concluded Uniackie.