Cambridge scientists reprogram brain cancer cells to stop them from spreading

Scientists at the University of Cambridge believe they may have discovered a surprising new way to slow the spread of brain cancer. Instead of targeting cancer cells directly, their research suggests that halting the flexibility of a common brain molecule could stop the most aggressive tumors from invading healthy tissue.

The idea is simple but groundbreaking: rather than destroy cancer cells, reshape their environment so they no longer behave like invaders.

At the heart of this work is hyaluronic acid, or HA, a sugar-like polymer that makes up much of the brain’s scaffolding. You may have heard of HA in cosmetics, where it’s used to hydrate skin, but inside your brain it plays a very different role. It provides a flexible, supportive structure around cells, forming part of what scientists call the extracellular matrix.

For glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive type of brain cancer, that flexibility can be a dangerous advantage. Cancer cells latch onto HA through surface receptors, using its bendable shape to trigger invasion pathways that let them slip into neighboring tissue.

Patients with glioblastoma face grim odds, with a five-year survival rate of only about 15%. Even when tumors are surgically removed, rogue cells usually regrow within months. Current drugs often struggle to reach deep inside tumor tissue, and radiation can only buy time before the cancer returns.

The Cambridge team decided to see what would happen if HA were stripped of its flexibility. Using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, they showed that when HA twists into certain shapes, it binds strongly to CD44 receptors on cancer cells—signals that push the cells to migrate. But when HA was cross-linked and effectively “frozen” into place, those signals disappeared.

Professor Melinda Duer from Cambridge’s Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry led the study, which was published in Royal Society Open Science. She explained the process this way: “Fundamentally, hyaluronic acid molecules need to be flexible to bind to cancer cell receptors. If you can stop hyaluronic acid being flexible, you can stop cancer cells from spreading. The remarkable thing is that we didn’t have to kill the cells — we simply changed their environment, and they gave up trying to escape and invade neighbouring tissue.”

In other words, the cancer cells weren’t destroyed or trapped. They were reprogrammed. By stiffening the HA around them, the researchers stopped the cells from behaving aggressively, even at low concentrations.

Glioblastoma remains one of the toughest cancers to treat. Its aggressive spread makes surgery difficult, since removing a tumor rarely catches the tiny tendrils already woven into the brain. Doctors have long noticed that the disease often recurs right where surgery was performed. The new study may explain why. When fluid builds up at the surgical site, HA gets diluted, becoming more flexible and inadvertently making it easier for tumor cells to spread.

By freezing HA, this effect could be blocked, reducing the risk of regrowth after surgery. That discovery alone could give doctors a new tool to buy precious time for patients.

Professor Duer believes the impact could extend beyond brain cancer: “Because our approach doesn’t require drugs to enter every single cancer cell, it could in principle work for many solid tumours where the surrounding matrix drives invasion. Cancer cells behave the way they do in part because of their environment. If you change their environment, you can change the cells.”

Traditional cancer therapies aim at the cells themselves, whether through chemotherapy, radiation, or targeted drugs. Each approach has strengths, but also steep limits. Drugs often come with toxic side effects. Tumors evolve resistance to targeted therapies. Radiation damages healthy tissue alongside cancer cells.

This new idea marks a shift in strategy. Instead of focusing on destroying cancer cells, researchers are trying to change the soil in which they grow. By reshaping the matrix around the tumor, they hope to make it less hospitable. This way, the disease could be contained without the collateral damage that comes from killing cells outright.

Professor Duer called it a first in the field: “Nobody has ever tried to change cancer outcomes by changing the matrix around the tumour. This is the first example where a matrix-based therapy could be used to reprogramme cancer cells.”

The study so far has been done in the lab, not in patients. The next step is to test the method in animals. These studies will reveal whether frozen HA can block tumors in living systems, how long the stiffened molecules stay rigid, whether they can be safely introduced into the brain, and what side effects might emerge.

If the animal work is successful, the research could move toward clinical trials in people. Each step will take years, but the path forward is clear. And while the study is still at an early stage, the potential is attracting attention.

For families facing a glioblastoma diagnosis, the possibility of slowing the disease without relying on toxic drugs or endless surgeries brings hope. It paints a different picture of cancer care, one that focuses less on warfare and more on control. Instead of fighting cancer with harsher weapons, the goal is to contain it by making its surroundings unwelcoming.

The Cambridge discovery also shows the value of basic science. By studying the hidden shapes of a simple sugar molecule, researchers uncovered a fresh way to tackle one of the deadliest cancers known. It’s a reminder that sometimes, small insights into the building blocks of biology can lead to big shifts in medicine.

If this method proves successful in animal and clinical studies, it could transform how cancer is treated. Patients with glioblastoma may gain longer survival times and fewer toxic side effects than with traditional chemotherapy or radiation.

Surgeons may have a new tool to prevent recurrence after tumor removal. Beyond brain cancer, the approach could be applied to other solid tumors where the extracellular matrix influences cell invasion. The research also opens doors to a new class of therapies that focus on altering the environment around cancer cells instead of attacking the cells themselves.

This shift could make cancer care safer, more precise, and ultimately more effective for patients worldwide.

The research is supported by the European Research Council and the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Note: The article above provided above by The Brighter Side of News.

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