在乳腺癌模式实验小鼠的研究中，研究人员发现了一种预防乳腺癌细胞扩散的新治疗方法，新成果发表在4月在线出版的《自然―生物技术》期刊上。尽管在用于人类治疗前，这种治疗方法的安全性和有效性还需要进一步的研究，但新方法提供了一个验证原则，即有一天这种方法将会被证明有益于乳腺癌的治疗。
癌细胞转移是绝大多数癌症患者死亡的主要原因，但有几个因素阻碍了继发性肿瘤患者的治疗进展。其中一个问题是，科学家们目前还不清楚与癌症侵入和发展相关的分子机制，因此缺乏治疗靶标。最近，他们将目标集中到一种名为小RNAs的核酸分子，这种分子在正常细胞中控制着基因的表达，但它在疾病的形成和发展中也发挥了作用。部分小RNAs是转移形成的关键因素。此外，科学家们也提出，一种经过修饰、可以沉默小RNAs的反义RNA可以作为摧毁小RNA的特定分子靶标。
Robert Weinberg和同事合作，指出了用反义RNA治疗癌症转移的可行性。通过静脉注射反义RNA抑制转移前体小RNA，他们阻止了小鼠体内侵略性乳腺癌细胞的新转移。他们的反义RNA治疗不能阻止原发性肿瘤的生长或已经转移的癌细胞，但能将新形成的转移数量减少80%。
英文原文原始出处及摘要：
Nature Biotechnology doi:10.1038/nbt.1618
Therapeutic silencing of miR-10b inhibits metastasis in a mouse mammary tumor model
Li Ma, Ferenc Reinhardt, Elizabeth Pan, Jürgen Soutschek, Balkrishen Bhat, Eric G Marcusson, Julie Teruya-Feldstein, George W Bell " Robert A Weinberg
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are increasingly implicated in the regulation of metastasis. Despite their potential as targets for anti-metastatic therapy, miRNAs have only been silenced in normal tissues of rodents and nonhuman primates. Therefore, the development of effective approaches for sequence-specific inhibition of miRNAs in tumors remains a scientific and clinical challenge. Here we show that systemic treatment of tumor-bearing mice with miR-10b antagomirs―a class of chemically modified anti-miRNA oligonucleotide―suppresses breast cancer metastasis. Both in vitro and in vivo, silencing of miR-10b with antagomirs significantly decreases miR-10b levels and increases the levels of a functionally important miR-10b target, Hoxd10. Administration of miR-10b antagomirs to mice bearing highly metastatic cells does not reduce primary mammary tumor growth but markedly suppresses formation of lung metastases in a sequence-specific manner. The miR-10b antagomir, which is well tolerated by normal animals, appears to be a promising candidate for the development of new anti-metastasis agents.
