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Nerve cells from the brain invade prostate tumours

Prostate cancer contains nerve cells that are linked to disease progression, but their source was unknown. A mouse study reveals that cells from the brain invade prostate tumours and give rise to this nerve-cell population.
  1. Simon T. Schafer

    1. Simon T. Schafer is at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.

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  2. Fred H. Gage

    1. Fred H. Gage is at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.

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Many studies1–6 in the past decade have shown that interactions between tumour cells and nerve cells can influence the progression of various types of cancer. In prostate tumours, the presence of newly formed nerve cells is associated with the progression of malignancy and tumour spread to other locations in the body1,2,7. The microenvironment of a tumour can permit the development of such new nerve cells in a process called neo-neurogenesis. Yet how these nerve cells emerge in tumours in the first place has been a key unanswered question. Writing in Nature, Mauffrey et al.8 report a study in mice which indicates that a type of precursor cell called a neural progenitor cell, from a region of the brain in which the normal process of nerve-cell formation (neurogenesis) occurs, migrates to the site of prostate cancer. These cells invade the tumour microenvironment and give rise to new nerve cells.

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Nature 569, 637-638 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01461-7

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