New insights into processes that govern the spread of breast cancer are presented in this week’s Nature.

The work uncovers a pathway that regulates metastasis of breast cancer cells, involving a protein that interferes with genes implicated in metastasis suppression, which may represent a novel target for anti-cancer therapies.

Molecules called messenger ribonucleic acids (mRNAs) regulate gene expression by allowing translation of genetic information from DNA to cellular proteins.

Events that alter the stability of these genetic transcripts are involved in the development of many diseases.

Sohail Tavazoie and colleagues now identify a new pathway by which destabilisation of mRNAs can mediate breast cancer metastasis.

They find that the levels of TARBP2, a protein which is known to have a role in microRNA processing, are elevated in metastatic cells and metastatic human breast tumours.

TARBP2 is found to destabilise transcripts of two genes: amyloid precursor protein (APP) and ZNF395, which previously have been associated with Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease, respectively.

It emerges that the products of these genes are also suppressors of metastasis in breast cancer.

Strategies that prevent factors from destabilising mRNAs may represent a novel way of managing disease, the authors speculate.

Source: Nature