Lee, Yu-ChengKurtova, Antonina V.Xiao, JingNikolos, FotisHayashi, KazukuniTramel, ZoeJain, AntrixChen, FengjuChokshi, MithilLee, CiaranBao, GangZhang, XiangShen, JianjunMo, QianxingJung, Sung YunRowley, DavidChan, Keith Syson2020-02-142020-02-142019Lee, Yu-Cheng, Kurtova, Antonina V., Xiao, Jing, et al.. "Collagen-rich airway smooth muscle cells are a metastatic niche for tumor colonization in the lung." <i>Nature Communications,</i> 10, (2019) Springer Nature: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09878-4.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/108052Metastases account for the majority of cancer deaths. While certain steps of the metastatic cascade are well characterized, identification of targets to block this process remains a challenge. Host factors determining metastatic colonization to secondary organs are particularly important for exploration, as those might be shared among different cancer types. Here, we showed that bladder tumor cells expressing the collagen receptor, CD167a, responded to collagen I stimulation at the primary tumor to promote local invasion and utilized the same receptor to preferentially colonize at airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs)—a rich source of collagen III in lung. Morphologically, COL3-CD167a-driven metastatic foci are uniquely distinct from typical lung alveolar metastatic lesions and exhibited activation of the CD167a-HSP90-Stat3 axis. Importantly, metastatic lung colonization could be abrogated using an investigational drug that attenuates Stat3 activity, implicating this seed-and-soil interaction as a therapeutic target for eliminating lung metastasis.engThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.Journal articles41467-019-09878-4https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09878-4