Two Spanish therapies join the arsenal in cancer research
Researchers from two Spanish centers have just published their findings regarding the identification of two new therapies against different types of cancer. A piece of news that brings hope in the fight against the disease and that shows the good state of the research being done in our country.
Research is necessary to be able to find new targets that attack cancer in the most specific way possible and new molecules capable of targeting those targets identified in the tumor cell and acting.
For 16 years, the Mutua Madrileña Foundation has annually announced its Aid for Medical Research, a program to promote research of excellence in Spanish hospitals and which has served to finance more than 1.400 research projects throughout these years. Studies and clinical trials that have resulted in thousands of scientific publications and that continue to give rise to articles that progress little by little in the knowledge of the disease.
In recent months there have been two studies that have paid off. The findings have been published in scientific journals: Cancer and EBioMedicine and both have been achieved by young Spanish researchers, from the University of Granada and the Josep Carreras Institute, respectively.
A gene to destroy cells
In Granada, the team of Dr. Houria Boulaiz, from the research group "Advanced Therapies: Differentiation, Regeneration and Cancer" of the University of Granada, and belonging to the Granada Biosanitary Research Institute (IBS Granada) and the Unit of Excellence Modeling Nature: from nano to macro of the UGR, has developed a gene therapy system for cancer capable of stopping the proliferation of cells of different types of tumors, such as colorectal, cervical and breast, both in vitro and in vivo, stopping this forms cancer growth. The system, based on the LdrB toxin, has been patented and described in the scientific journal cancers.
Suicidal gene therapy consists of introducing at the cellular level a gene that is not typical of the organism or that is defective in it. Once inside the cells, the gene acts achieving the desired effect, in the case of this study, inducing the death of tumor cells.
The study is a proof of concept that the LdrB toxin is an effective molecule to kill tumor cells and now they will have to prove that it can be specifically targeted to specific tumors and that it can be used in humans.
Currently, there are other toxins that are being used in clinical trials for different types of cancer, such as botulinum toxin or diphtheria A. Against them, the great advantage of the LdrB toxin is its reduced size (only 35 amino acids), which it would allow its supply much easier than the others.
Antihistamines in leukemia
For its part, in Barcelona, the group led by Ruth Risueño, from the Leukemic Stem Cells group at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute, has discovered the potential of a group of antihistamines (drugs used to treat allergies) to kill acute myeloid leukemia cells.
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the most common in adults, accounts for 40% of all leukemias in the Western world. Its incidence in our country is estimated at 15 new cases per million inhabitants per year. His chemotherapy treatment remits from 50% to 85%, and after treatment he has a high recurrence rate.
The solution is not as simple as the use of these common drugs, because those that are available today degrade rapidly and there is no technique available that allows them to be administered directly to diseased cells. Ruth Risueño's team is working on making these drugs more stable, while developing a mechanism so that they can be administered directly and specifically to leukemic stem cells.
Two quite certain hopes that are born from Spanish teams and that add to all the research and advances in the battle against different types of cancer.