Université de Fribourg

TGFBI modulates tumour hypoxia and promotes breast cancer metastasis

Fico, Flavia ; Santamaria‐Martínez, Albert

In: Molecular Oncology, 2020, vol. 14, no. 12, p. 3198–3210

Breast cancer metastasis is a complex process that depends not only on intrinsic characteristics of metastatic stem cells, but also on the particular microenvironment that supports their growth and modulates the plasticity of the system. In search for microenvironmental factors supporting cancer stem cell (CSC) growth and tumour progression to metastasis, we here investigated the role of the...

Université de Fribourg

Detection of HER2+ breast cancer cells using bioinspired DNA-based signal amplification

Rafiee, Sarah D. ; Kocabey, Samet ; Mayer, Michael ; List, Jonathan ; Rüegg, Curzio

In: ChemMedChem, 2020, vol. 15, no. 8, p. 661-666

Circulating tumor cells (CTC) are promising biomarkers for metastatic cancer detection and monitoring progression. However, detection of CTCs remains challenging due to their low frequency and heterogeneity. Herein, we report a bioinspired approach to detect individual cancer cells, based on a signal amplification cascade using a programmable DNA hybridization chain reaction (HCR) circuit. We...

Université de Fribourg

Breast cancer stem cells with tumor- versus metastasis-initiating capacities are modulated by TGFBR1 inhibition

Fico, Flavia ; Bousquenaud, Mélanie ; Rüegg, Curzio ; Santamaria-Martínez, Albert

In: Stem Cell Reports, 2019, vol. 13, no. 1, p. 1–9

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are defined by their ability to regenerate a tumor upon transplantation. However, it is not yet clear whether tumors contain a single CSC population or different subsets of cells with mixed capacities for initiating primary and secondary tumors. Using two different identification strategies, we studied the overlap between metastatic stem cells and tumor-initiating...