They discover a biomarker that can improve personalized treatment in prostate cancer
The results of this research from Granada may represent an advance in a greater knowledge of this disease
The Nutrition, Diet and Risk Assessment research group of the Biosanitary Research Institute of Granada (ibs.GRANADA) has managed to detect a biomarker that can help determine the prognosis, diagnosis, as well as improve the treatment of prostate cancer.
Despite the figures of the latest report from the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM), which places prostate cancer as the most prevalent tumor among the male population in Spain and the 2nd in the general population, there is still not much effectiveness in its treatment, and there is still little knowledge of the molecular factors that cause it.
This team of scientists from Granada has been researching for almost 15 years in the study of non-invasive biomarkers that allow prostate patients to be classified according to their aggressiveness, prognosis and treatment; with the aim of providing some more information on the origin of this tumor. A non-invasive biomarker is a substance that indicates a biological state and can be efficiently detected in a biological sample such as blood, without the need to take a tissue sample for detection.
These ibs.GRANADA researchers have published several scientific publications highlighting the role of non-invasive biomarkers in prostate cancer, the so-called miRNAs, which are short-length RNAs involved in the regulation of pathways related to tumor proliferation and aggressiveness. Among these pathways, its action with the androgen receptor stands out, in the cycle and cell death or in metastatic processes.
In one of the latest studies by this prestigious research group, published in the journal Biomedicines, have carried out an analysis of 159 biopsies from men with prostate cancer and 60 blood plasmas, including in the analysis, comparisons with other data from public repositories of more than half a thousand patients. With this entire cohort analyzed, they have managed to detect 4 biomarkers (miR-210-3p, miR-23c, miR-592, and miR-93-5) that can be predictors of the aggressiveness of prostate cancer and contribute to early diagnosis. Of these 4 biomarkers, miR-93-5 appears to be the most promising non-invasive biomarker for prostate cancer.
All these data obtained by this research group, belonging to the Epidemiology and Public Health area of ibs.GRANADA, open new doors to the personalized management of prostate cancer with the role that these molecular biomarkers play in tumors.
This research group has almost fifty scientific publications on prostate cancer, and currently has three active research projects on molecular biomarkers of risk and diagnosis in sporadic and familial prostate cancer; that can improve current strategies with PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen).
About the research group
The ibs.GRANADA Nutrition, Diet and Risk Assessment research group, led by Dr. Ana María Rivas Velasco, is focused on the Investigation of Food Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors and its effect on metabolic diseases, such as obesity. His main lines of research are the exposure to endocrine disruptors in the microbiota in different diseases in the European population and the identification of genes associated with hormone-dependent diseases.
More information about the group at https://www.ibsgranada.es/grupos-de-investigacion/e15-nutricion-dieta-evaluacion-de-riesgos/
Bibliographic references:
Identification of MicroRNAs as Viable Aggressiveness Biomarkers for Prostate Cancer. Martínez-González LJ, Sánchez-Conde V, González-Cabezuelo JM, Antunez-Rodríguez A, Andrés-León E, Robles-Fernandez I, Lorente JA, Vázquez-Alonso F, Alvarez-Cubero MJ.Biomedicines. 2021 Jun 5;9(6):646. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines9060646.
Determination of Exosome Mitochondrial DNA as a Biomarker of Renal Cancer Aggressiveness. Arance E, Ramírez V, Rubio-Roldan A, Ocaña-Peinado FM, Romero-Cachinero C, Jódar-Reyes AB, Vazquez-Alonso F, Martinez-Gonzalez LJ, Alvarez-Cubero MJ. Cancers (Basel). 2021 Dec 31;14(1):199. doi: 10.3390/cancers14010199.
Metabolic pathways, alterations in miRNAs expression and effects of genetic polymorphisms of bisphenol to analogues: A systematic review. Ramírez V, Gálvez-Ontiveros Y, Porras-Quesada P, Martinez-Gonzalez LJ, Rivas A, Álvarez-Cubero MJ. Environ Res. 2021 Jun;197:111062. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111062. Epub 2021 Mar 30. PMID: 33798517.
The role of miRNAs as biomarkers in prostate cancer. Cozar JM, Robles-Fernandez I, Rodriguez-Martinez A, Puche-Sanz I, Vazquez-Alonso F, Lorente JA, Martinez-Gonzalez LJ, Alvarez-Cubero MJ. Mutat Res Rev Mutat Res. 2019 Jul-Sep;781:165 -174. doi: 10.1016/j.mrrev.2019.05.005. Epub 2019 May 22.
