6/03/2017

ANP as a remote metastasis suppressor

Cancer has the brutal capacity of remote metastasis which usually kills the patient. Without remote metastasis, it won't fatally harm the patient in most cases. Surgery could be curative to them.

Any medication or therapy to suppress or eradicate remote metastasis has been desired. This news might be a breakthrough for metastasis suppression. Atrial natriuretic peptide;ANP, an antihypertensive hormone produced at heart, seems to be a hopeful medication for this purpose. There are a few reports that  ANP has anti tumor activity in animal model.

I have a friend who suffers from breast cancer and is waiting for curative surgery after chemo protocol. There must be millions of people in the same situation. I really hope this will promise them as a powerful medication for complete remission. 

Quote;

 2015 Mar 31;112(13):4086-91. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1417273112. Epub 2015 Mar 16.

Atrial natriuretic peptide prevents cancer metastasis through vascular endothelial cells.

Abstract

Most patients suffering from cancer die of metastatic disease. Surgical removal of solid tumors is performed as an initial attempt to cure patients; however, surgery is often accompanied with trauma, which can promote early recurrence by provoking detachment of tumor cells into the blood stream or inducing systemic inflammation or both. We have previously reported that administration of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) during the perioperative period reduces inflammatory response and has a prophylactic effect on postoperative cardiopulmonary complications in lung cancer surgery. Here we demonstrate that cancer recurrence after curative surgery was significantly lower in ANP-treated patients than in control patients (surgery alone). ANP is known to bind specifically to NPR1 [also called guanylyl cyclase-A (GC-A) receptor]. In mouse models, we found that metastasis of GC-A-nonexpressing tumor cells (i.e., B16 mouse melanoma cells) to the lung was increased in vascular endothelium-specific GC-A knockout mice and decreased in vascular endothelium-specific GC-A transgenic mice compared with control mice. We examined the effect of ANP on tumor metastasis in mice treated with lipopolysaccharide, which mimics systemic inflammation induced by surgical stress. ANP inhibited the adhesion of cancer cells to pulmonary arterial and micro-vascular endothelial cells by suppressing the E-selectin expression that is promoted by inflammation. These results suggest that ANP prevents cancer metastasis by inhibiting the adhesion of tumor cells to inflamed endothelial cells.

2 comments:

  1. Hopefully another good tool in the warchest of tools against cancer. Hope your friend does well in surgery and afterward.

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    1. Eliminating metastasis of cancer is really one of the ultimate goals in oncology. I know it is not easy but still hope this will be a step for the goal. ANP medication is already available as a drug for acute heart failure. The lady waiting for the surgery is the wife of a friend of mine. A very nice couple. Thanks for your wishes for them.

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