Researchers from the ibs.GRANADA improve the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer
One of the research groups has developed a new nanopharmaceutical that could improve the response to treatment of patients with lung cancer
Several research teams from the Biosanitary Research Institute of Granada (ibs.GRANADA) and the University of Granada (UGR) have made public the results of different scientific works on lung cancer, coinciding with the International Day of this disease, which It is commemorated this Sunday, August 1, and that it continues to be the most diagnosed type of cancer in the world and the one with the highest mortality.
Only in Spain there were more than 22.000 deaths per year from lung cancer (according to data provided by the National Institute of Statistics for the year 2018), being by far the cancer that causes the most deaths in Spain.
At the UGR there are many research groups that, from different fields and scientific disciplines, investigate this disease, together with the Center for Biomedical Research (CIBM), the Institute for Biosanitary Research ibs.Granada and the Pfizer Center-University of Granada- Andalusian Board of Genomics and Oncology Research (GENYO).
A new nanopharmaceutical
One of them has made it possible to develop a new nanopharmaceutical that could improve the response to treatment of patients with lung cancer.
The project has been led by José Carlos Prados and Consolación Melguizo, professors from the Department of Human Anatomy and Embryology and members of the Biomedical Research Center (CIBM) of the UGR and the Institute for Biosanitary Research ibs.Granada, together with José Manuel Baeyens, Professor of the Department of Pharmacology, and Javier Cañizares and Eduardo Fernández, professors of the Department of Histology, all of them, also members and of the CIBM of the UGR and the ibs.Granada. The project has had the collaboration of researchers from the Medical Oncology Service of the Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital in Granada, and its results have been published in the prestigious journal Biomed Pharmacother.
This research team has developed a new way to transport and administer the drug called paclitaxel, an essential drug in the treatment of lung cancer, improving its effect, managing to attack the so-called lung cancer stem cells, and reducing its side effects , which could be a breakthrough for patients with this disease.
Paclitaxel (Taxol) is a very effective agent for the treatment of patients with lung cancer but it presents an important limitation in its use since, in addition to being not very specific and selective, it gives rise to serious side effects, among which an intense pain when altering the spinal nerves (peripheral neuropathy) that causes, in many cases, the abandonment or suspension of the treatment. In addition, you need for your administration of certain excipients that can also cause serious side effects.
The studies carried out by this team from the UGR, both in cell cultures and preclinical in experimental animals, have given very positive results that open the door to a new therapeutic strategy to apply chemotherapy in patients with lung cancer, increasing its effectiveness and reducing its side effects.
Improved early detection
The second of the works has been carried out by the Liquid Biopsy and Cancer Interception group (LB&CI) led by José Antonio Lorente, María José Serrano and José Luis García Puche, a project financed with 500.000 euros is being carried out at GENYO and UGR sponsored by the Andalusian Regional Government Health and Family Council and by the pharmaceutical company GSK, which has two main objectives.
The first of these is to identify markers associated with the risk of developing lung cancer in populations that are especially sensitive to its development, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; and the second, the determination of markers associated with the risk of relapse in early stages of lung cancer.
This project is clinically led by pulmonologists and professors from the Faculty of Medicine Pedro J Romero and Bernardino Alcaázar Navarrete. The premise of the study is the early detection of lung cancer (the so-called "cancer interception"), to try to detect it and be able to treat it curatively before its progression turns it into a very serious or even fatal disease
Personalized medicine
The third research group that has presented this week the results of a study on lung cancer is made up of researchers from the UGR, GENYO and ibs.GRANADA, who have advanced in the understanding of this type of cancer in collaboration with the Harvard University (Boston, United States).
In this work, the results of which have recently been published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics, the mechanisms used by tumor cells to develop the disease are shown for the first time. In addition, the researchers demonstrate that the activity of miR-222 decreases the survival of lung tumor cells. MiR-222 is part of the group of microRNAs, which are small molecules with genetic information and regulatory functions on the production of proteins in the cell. In recent years, it has become clear that the levels of different microRNAs are strictly controlled in our cells, and that changes in the normal levels of certain microRNAs can contribute to the development of diseases such as cancer.
The first author of this work is Paola Peinado Fernández, a doctoral student at the University of Granada and a researcher at the Pfizer Center-University of Granada-Junta de Andalucía for Genomics and Oncology Research (GENYO).
The research has helped uncover the role it plays in controlling the levels of miR-222, a protein system called SWI / SNF, which modifies how our DNA is packed together and helps determine how many microRNAs are made in the cell. Researchers have shown that SWI / SNF systems are responsible for coordinating the manufacture of the miR-222 microRNA by binding to its regulatory sequence in the genome.
Furthermore, this miR-222 microRNA, which has the ability to slow tumor growth, is presented as a potential therapeutic tool, although more studies will be necessary to develop its clinical application.
The director of the research work, Pedro Medina, professor at the University of Granada and group leader at GENYO and the ibs.GRANADA, on the repercussions that this work may have on the lung cancer clinic, indicates that «this is a basic research work, which can help us design the personalized medicine of the future. In fact, antitumor therapeutic strategies based on the activity of microRNAs that act to slow tumor growth are currently being tested with promising results in patients with advanced lung cancer. "
The vice-rector for Research and Transfer of the UGR, Enrique Herrera Viedma, highlighted “the excellent work carried out by the members of these research groups at the UGR to propose solutions to mitigate the incidence of cancer as aggressive as lung cancer, contributing novelties in the treatment of the same with latest generation drugs, nanopharmaceuticals, early detection and techniques for the design of personalized treatments.