Cancer cells can "infect" neighboring cells.

Many cells, including cancer cells, are surrounded by hundreds of tiny vesicles separated by membranes, which are also called extracellular bodies. The extracellular body consists of protein, DNA and RNA. People always think that these vesicles manage metabolic wastes, but in fact, they can strengthen the connection between cells: some of them can fuse with other cells and insert their own "probes" into them.

Small blisters can cause cancer. The researchers injected the extracellular body of breast cancer cells into mice together with healthy normal cells and found that normal healthy cells became tumor cells. This result paves the way for finding markers to monitor the formation mechanism of cancer cells, and may even become a beacon for cancer treatment.

Previous studies have shown that cancer cells can produce more extracellular bodies than healthy cells. Some researchers have studied the differences between the extracellular bodies of cancer cells and healthy cells. They separated the somatic cells outside the cell from the attached cells, and found that the extracellular bodies of cancer cells contain fragments that need to produce small ribonucleic acid, which can cut off the expression of the target gene, that is, have the effect of destroying healthy cells.

After healthy cells come into contact with the extracellular body of cancer cells, gene expression is affected. These extracellular bodies were injected into mice, and the experimental results showed that they could cause tumors. However, if the tiny RNA gene fragment in the extracellular body of cancer cells is destroyed, the growth of the tumor will stop.

The scientists also compared the extracellular bodies of 8 normal people and 1 1 breast cancer patients. Extracellular bodies of normal cells of 8 healthy people and extracellular bodies of cancer cells of 1 1 patients were mixed with healthy cells and injected into mice. The results showed that the extracellular energy of 5 patients with 1 1 breast cancer could cause pathological changes of healthy cells, while none of the cells of 8 healthy people could cause pathological changes.