Using state-of-the-art optical tweezers, researchers in Denmark have provided new insights into how a cell explores its surroundings and invades tissues via octopus-like tentacles called filopodia. The findings could have implications for cancer and neurological disorder research.
"While the cell doesn’t have eyes or a sense of smell, its surface is equipped with ultra-slim filopodia that resemble entangled octopus tentacles,” says Associate Professor Poul Martin Bendix, head of the laboratory for experimental biophysics at the Niels Bohr Institute (NBI) at University of Copenhagen. “These filopodia help a cell move towards a bacterium, and at the same time, act as sensory feelers that identify the bacterium as a prey."
It was already known that filopodia plays a sensory role. The new findings relate to how filopodia rotate and behave mechanically. Bendix compares it to a rubber band; untwisted, it has no power. But if you twist it, it contracts, and the combination of twisting and contraction helps a cell move directionally.
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"[Filopodia are] able to bend—twist, if you will—in a way that allows them to explore the entire space around the cell, and they can even penetrate tissues in their environment," says lead author Natascha Leijnse.
Researchers from the Danish Cancer Society Research Center were a part of the team behind the discovery. They are interested in whether switching off the production of certain proteins can inhibit the transport mechanisms important to the filopodia of cancer cells.
“Obviously, our results are of interest to cancer researchers,” says Bendix. “Cancer cells are noted for their being highly invasive. And, it is reasonable to believe that they are especially dependent on the efficacy of their filopodia, in terms of examining their surroundings and facilitating their spread. So, it’s conceivable that by finding ways of inhibiting the filopodia of cancer cells, cancer growth can be stalled.”
The work was published recently in Nature Communications