Cancer Cells Grow During Night: Study
Cancer cells multiply and spread during night, finds a study.
Recently, Israeli researchers from the Weizmann Institute discovered in their study on mice that cancer cells remain active at night time due to a receptor called epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) that binds itself with glucocorticoid, a steroid hormone. The hormone plays a primary role in balancing the body's energy level at day time and its level rises during stress alerting the body's defense mechanism.
The glucocoticoid is found also as a protein on cell surface that alters the EGFR's routine and passes on biochemical messages received from others cells to the cell's interior. This relationship between the hormone and EGFR cause nocturnal cancerous activity, reports the Daily Mail.
These findings inspired researchers to test a breast cancer drug 'Laptinib' on laboratory mice at different time of the day. They observed it worked the best in combating cancer cells and EGFR's activity at night. In addition, they also postulate that variations in the levels of glucocorticoid can also prevent cancer cells from spreading. The authors believe cancer drugs and treatments must be given at night to effectively cure the patients from the disease.
"Cancer treatments are often administered in the daytime, just when the patient's body is suppressing the spread of the cancer on its own. What we propose is not a new treatment, but rather a new treatment schedule for some of the current drugs," said Yosef Yarden, co-researcher and scientist from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, reports the Free Press Journal.
More information is available online in the journal Nature Communications.
