Cancer cells appeared at night. As we sleep, they grow and spread rapidly.
The new fact about the tumor was revealed by researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. The surprising findings published in Nature Communications show that nighttime is the best time for cancer to grow and spread in the body.
These findings can be useful for knowing the timing of appropriate drug delivery to improve the efficiency of cancer treatment.
Mattia Lauriola of the Department of Biology and Eytan Domany from the Department of Complex Physics found the facts while investigating the relationship between complex receptor tissues in body cells. The receptor delivers biochemical messages forwarded to the interior of the cell. The activity is very active at night.
"We see two specific receptors," they said in a statement quoted by Science Daily.
The first receptor is the epidermal growth fastener receptor (EGF). These receptors can promote cell growth and migration, including cancer cells. The second receptor is a steroid hormone called glucocorticoid (GC).
GC plays a role in influencing the body's energy levels and metabolic processes. This hormone is often called the stress hormone because the amount increases dramatically when the body is experiencing stress.
Through multiple receptors, the cell receives a variety of messages at once, including a prioritized message. In the experiment, Lauriola and Yarden found that EGF-driven cell migration was suppressed when encountered with GC receptors.
Researchers examined this activity in mice. They found a significant difference: EGF receptors are much more active during bedtime than when the body does the activity.
Nighttime Drug Use
So, how do these findings relate to cancer, especially from EGF receptors? The researchers gave Lapatinib, the latest generation of cancer vaccines. This vaccine is commonly used to treat breast cancer and is designed to inhibit EGF.
In the experiment, the researchers gave these mice at different times. As a result, observations showed significant differences in the size of cancer cell levels in various groups of mice, according to the timing of drug administration.
These findings indicate that indeed the rise and fall of GC steroid levels for 24 hours can inhibit or even activate cancer cells.
In conclusion, the researchers said, the provision of anti-cancer drugs is much more efficient at night.
"Cancer treatment is often done during the day, when the patient's body can suppress cancer cells by itself," says Yarden.
"What we are proposing is not a treatment, but a timetable for administering drugs to make healing effective."