Abstract:
This research was conducted to view the connection between the immortal breast cancer cell (4T1s) and MDSCs. The specific communication that will be investigated will be the relationship between the TFF2 gene and CXCR4 receptor protein. The human body is amazing and has the ability to protect itself from outside forces. Even though the body is so advanced, some things are still able to defeat it. This paper will be exploring one such disease, cancer. There are many reasons that cancer is so hard for humans to fight. First off, it is just a mutated cell of the body, it isn’t technically alien. Beyond this, cancer has somehow managed to suppress the immune system. Humans have tried to make treatments for cancer, but those haven’t worked as effectively as desired. In fact, the roadblock in developing treatments is so bad that in 2030 it is projected that the number of cancer cases will rise to 23.6 million cases. In order to see the changes, we will use dyed 4T1 nuclei, anti-bodied CXCR4 receptors on the membrane, dyed TFF2 signals, and a confocal microscope to observe the emittance of certain colors which will prove the correlation between cancer and MDSCs, thus allowing cancer cures to be further researched. |
The Immune System and MDSCs |
Cancer |
From the ability to process and compute things to the skills and reflexes to stay alive and hunt, the human body is one of the most advanced organisms on planet Earth. . Although the main factor for the success of homo sapiens for past 200,000 years has possibly been our body’s advanced immune system. A large part of the success of this system is that it has a precaution for making sure it doesn’t accidentally destroy the body. The immune system does this through cells called myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). These cells have only one function, to keep the immune system in check. This is what is seen in people recovering from diseases because the immune system is still fighting even after the threat is gone. For example, this is why the temperature in patients goes from something abnormal like 103 degrees when sick to something normal like 98 degrees after the MDSCs kick in and stop the immune system.
Breast CancerThis research is looking at a specific cancer; breast cancer. About 1 in 8 women (about 12%) are projected to get cancer in their lifetime. This year, it is estimated that a total of 268,600 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in women in the US, not even accounting for the 62,930 cases of non-invasive (in-situ) breast cancer (U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics, 2019). Clearly, breast cancer is not a joke. Humans, as stated before, have been trying to “cure” cancer for many years. Some of the treatments that have been implemented are: surgery where the doctor cuts out the tumor, chemotherapy where the tumor is hit with focused radiation in order to kill it, or immunotherapy where the doctors do various things to strengthen the immune system to fight of the tumors naturally. Although so many treatments have been made they all have very low success rates especially in cases of breast cancer. This is due to two facts: breast cancer is structurally very stable, and it has a very strong relationship with MDSCs. So the question remains, how are the tumor cells able to send signals to the MDSCs.
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Although humans are very advanced, there has been a recurring disease that has been an issue for the humans’ immune system in particular. This disease is called cancer. It was first documented in 1600 BC (Umansky, et al, 2016). The widely accepted definition of cancer is this; cells mutated during DNA replication a base is replicated incorrectly leading to a mutation, usually abnormal cell replication. Since it was documented, there has been a tireless journey to “cure” cancer. The only issue is that because cancer is a part of the human body, and just a mutated self cell, it has certain advantages over other diseases. Also, cancer has a cheat card; it can protect itself using MDSCs.
Tumors have been able to use the natural machinery of the human body to stop the immune system from killing it. Instead of the MDSCs preventing the human’s body from harming itself, they can be used by cancers to conspire against the human host. To secure the facts of this phenomenon, scientists conducted an exploratory test in mice. They took tumor-bearing mice and looked at the percentage of total cells that were MDSCs and compared that with the numbers of healthy mice. The graphs show the difference in MDSC% from tumor bearing to non-tumor bearing mice. In tumor bearing mice the MDSC levels were very high. In healthy mice the MDSC concentrations were little to none. These results show (figure 1) confirmed the fact that cancer uses the human body against itself. Now the question was how these cancer cells were able to send signals to the MDSCs. TFF2 and CXCR4Then as the scientists were looking through the human DNA to find out more about people, they found a signaling gene. It’s on the 21st genome, and its name is Trefoil Factor 2 (TFF2). The doctors had no idea what it was responsible for. The research was started and looked in depth at this gene and its interactions with MDSCs. As the research went on, a receptor protein was noticed. This receptor protein was on MDSCs. It is called CXCR4 and it was believed that the TFF2 gene would make a signal that would be received by the receptor thus calling the MDSCs to protect the area (Rase, 2018)
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Research Question This research will analyze the 4T1 cancer cells in balb/c mice in correlation with the TFF2 signals, specifically the interaction between MDSCs and the TFF2 signals sent by breast tumors.
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