They investigate a protein that improves the effectiveness of chemotherapy
Researcher María Ángel García Chaves, recently awarded a prize by the Royal National Academy of Pharmacy, leads a project studying the protein kinase "PKR," which would allow us to determine the efficacy of this treatment against cancer prior to chemotherapy. This doctor, who belongs to the Oncology Clinical Management Unit of the Granada University Hospital Complex, has been working for years on the discovery and mechanism of action of this protein, as well as its clinical and therapeutic implications.
Specifically, she has studied the mechanism of action and regulation of PKR at the National Center for Biotechnology in Madrid and the Granada Biosanitary Research Institute (ibs.GRANADA). The objective is to demonstrate the importance of this protein as a molecular target for conventional and newly synthesized chemotherapy drugs and its potential as a biomarker and therapeutic target in diseases such as cancer and other neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases.
After his initial work in different laboratories, he has managed to transfer his analysis to patients, which is called "translational" research, thus achieving more personalized medicine. He explains that PKR is a protein that responds to cellular stress and, in cancer patients, is largely responsible for the death of tumor cells when they receive chemotherapy.
Through two projects granted by the Junta de Andalucía and the Carlos III Health Institute, García Chaves intends to study how this protein is found in cancer patients, specifically those of the colon, who respond or not to chemotherapy. The presence of this protein varies greatly depending on the patient, hence the research aims to relate its status to the patient's response to chemotherapy.
If the analysis validates the proposed hypotheses, the future goal would be to develop a commercial kit that would allow for genetic testing based on the aforementioned protein, thereby determining whether the patient will respond to chemotherapy. All of this would prevent cancer patients from experiencing negative side effects if the latter treatment proves ineffective, allowing them to seek alternative therapies instead.
"We've seen that cell lines that don't have this protein don't respond to chemotherapy; it doesn't do anything for them. Now we want to see if patients who don't have it or express it poorly respond to this treatment," he notes.
The project also aims to explore other biomarkers, known as "microRNAs" in blood, which would also allow a simple analysis to predict a patient's response to treatment.
