Jackson Lab researchers discover way to identify tumor's cell of origin
Finding the cell in which a tumor originates can influence both the course and outcome of a disease.
Researchers at Jackson Laboratory and their colleagues said they have discovered a precise and reliable way to identify the kind of cell that leads to acute myeloid leukemia, a fast-growing form of cancer of the blood and bone marrow that is somewhat rare, affecting fewer than 200,000 Americans a year, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The researchers used a tool called open chromatin profiling to identify the cell of origin in a mouse.
“Knowing the cell of origin of cancer cells can provide insight into tumor subtypes and possibly [be of] diagnostic and therapeutic benefit,” Jackson Lab Assistant Professor Jennifer Trowbridge, said in a statement. She is the lead author of the study published on July 11 in Nature Communications. “But existing methods to identify cell of origin from bulk tumor cell samples have been unsuccessful.”
Chromatin is the material in the nucleus of the cell that condenses to form chromosomes during cell division. It consists of DNA, proteins called histones and RNA. Every type of cell has a characteristic chromatin structure.
Trowbridge figured that analyzing certain chromatin in bulk tumor cells might provide an improved method to identify cancer cell of origin because of the cell-type specificity of chromatin.
The researchers noted that, with further study their approach provide a valuable human cancer identifier.
The research was funded by National Institutes of Health grants, a Cancer Core Grant, the Maine Cancer Foundation and an American Society of Hematology Scholar Award.
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