Synaptic proximity enables NMDAR signalling to promote brain metastasis.

ABSTRACT: Metastasis-the disseminated growth of tumours in distant organs-underlies cancer mortality. Breast-to-brain metastasis (B2BM) is a common and disruptive form of cancer and is prevalent in the aggressive basal-like subtype, but is also found at varying frequencies in all cancer subtypes. Previous studies revealed parameters of breast cancer metastasis to the brain, but its preference for this site remains an enigma. Here we show that B2BM cells co-opt a neuronal signalling pathway that was recently implicated in invasive tumour growth, involving activation by glutamate ligands of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs), which is key in model systems for metastatic colonization of the brain and is associated with poor prognosis. Whereas NMDAR activation is autocrine in some primary tumour ty

SUBMITTER: Zeng Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6837873 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature