Could Skin Cells Be Used To Kill Cancer?

Researchers have discovered a way to turn skin cells into cells that fight cancer.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina discovered this technique that fights remnant brain tumor cells in mice. In humans with glioblastomas--an aggressive form of brain cancer in which--only 30 percent patients survive past the two year mark following a diagnosis.

"We wanted to find out if these induced neural stem cells would home in on cancer cells and whether they could be used to deliver a therapeutic agent," Dr. Shawn Hingtgen, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, said in a news release. "This is the first time this direct reprogramming technology has been used to treat cancer."

During the study, researchers reprogrammed fibroblasts--otherwise known as skin cells--in order to make them neural stem cells and create a tumor-killing protein. The cells, which in skin produce collagen and connective tissue, hunt and kill cancer cells, according to UPI. 

Based on the type of tumor, researchers were able to increase survival time in the mice from 160 to 220 percent. With future studies, researchers hope to focus on human stem cells and testing more effective anti-cancer drugs that can be loaded into tumor-seeking neural stem cells.

"Our work represents the newest evolution of the stem-cell technology that won the Nobel Prize in 2012," Hingtgen said, via Medical Xpress. "We wanted to find out if these induced neural stem cells would home in on cancer cells and whether they could be used to deliver a therapeutic agent. This is the first time this direct reprogramming technology has been used to treat cancer."

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

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