Abstract
Cell fusion is a physiological cellular process essential for fertilization, viral entry, muscle differentiation and placental development, among others. In this review, we will highlight the different cancer cell-cell fusions and the advantages obtained by these fusions. We will specially focus on the acquisition of metastatic features by cancer cells after fusion with bone marrow-derived cells. The mechanism by which cancer cells fuse with other cells has been poorly studied thus far, but the presence in several cancer cells of syncytin, a trophoblastic fusogen, leads us to a cancer cell fusion mechanism similar to the one used by the trophoblasts. The mechanism by which cancer cells perform the cell fusion could be an interesting target for cancer therapy.
Highlights
Cancer progresses through the accumulation of genetic alterations [1] and chromosomal instability [2] among various other factors
All these changes that follow the cell-cell fusion between a bone marrow-derived cell (BMDC) and an epithelial cancer cell are very helpful for metastasis, which is a complicated, multistep process characterized by the following stages: (i) Loss of adhesion to adjacent cells; (ii) Ability to traverse the basement membrane; (iii) Migration through mesodermal matrix; (iv) Intravasation into the blood or lymph circulatory system; (v) Extravasate from the vessels and (vi) Colonize distant organs or lymph nodes [50,51]
Recent studies have revealed some of the effectors that are implicated in the control of cell-cell fusion, but the spotlight is centered on uncovering the proteins implicated in the direct fusion: the
Summary
Cancer progresses through the accumulation of genetic alterations [1] and chromosomal instability [2] among various other factors. Cell fusion has recently gained a great deal of attention for its role in cancer progression as a source of genetic instability, as well as a mechanism of metastasis and drug resistance [3,4]. Is there evidence of how cell fusion influences cancer progression, but as we will explain in this review, several features of cancer cells, especially metastasis, are better explained by cell fusion events contributing to the accumulation of random mutations. This new interest in cell fusion as part of cancer development has brought with it an increased number of studies trying to elucidate the mechanisms behind cell fusion. Cancer cell fusions resemble other types of cell fusions, including events during trophoblastic development, and the genes and proteins in trophoblasts and cancer cells have many similarities, which will be as well covered in this review
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