Targeting a key adhesion protein renders glioblastoma cells energetically sluggish, suppressing growth and invasion

Cancer cells need a family of proteins called adhesion proteins to move and invade healthy tissue. Scientists at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer studied one of these proteins, FAK, to find out how they can exploit cancer cells needed for adhesion to better treat it. 

The researchers found that FAK indeed helps brain cancer cells move by gripping and pulling on their surroundings. However, when they switched FAK off in lab-grown cells, the liquid they grew in changed colour, an early sign that the cells were using nutrients differently. 

Further research revealed that active FAK boosts how cancer cells make energy from nutrients such as sugar and glutamine enabling them to spread beyond their surroundings to more distant locations. 

When the protein is blocked, the cells loosen their grip on their surroundings and tug more on each other instead, becoming rounder, moving less, and becoming less capable of making energy. 

In mice with glioblastoma, turning off FAK in the cancer cells led to smaller tumours, reduced movement of cancer cells in the brain, and longer survival. 

These findings suggest that targeting FAK could slow glioblastoma by limiting both its energy supply and its ability to spread.