CIB researchers lead a team that discovered a possible therapeutic target to fight various types of cancer
08-14-2020
Julio César Cárdenas and Alenka Lovy, members of CIB U. Mayor, lead a group that for 6 years worked to detect that the inhibition of the IP3-sensitive calcium channel reduces cancer cells, but without eliminating normal cells. The research was published in the journal Science Signaling, and academics from the University of Chile and the US universities of Pennsylvania, Tufts and California also worked on it.
Researchers from the Centro de Biología Integrativa U. Mayor, Julio César Cárdenas and Alenka Lovy, led the team that after 6 years of work, published the results of a study that could bring good news in the creation of therapies against cancer, the second cause of death in the world and for which about 10 million people die each year.
The research, published in the prestigious journal Science Signaling, also included academics from the University of Chile and the US universities of Pennsylvania, Tufts and California.
"The treatments available for cancer show great variability, being very effective in some types and not in others. Furthermore, the treatments lack selectivity, also affecting normal cells, which generates various sequelae," explains Cárdenas, who comments that the search for selective treatments, which are capable of being used in various types of cancer, remains a necessity.
"Our group has focused on studying and exploiting the metabolic differences that exist between normal and cancer cells, in order to generate therapeutic alternatives that are applicable to various tumor types," adds the academic.
In this way, the published study showed that inhibition of the IP3-sensitive calcium channel decreases the survival of a large number of cancers, which use reductive carboxylation to generate the necessary metabolites to maintain their viability. “These types of cancers correspond to those that have mutations in the mitochondria, so they cannot use it; those that present pseudo-hypoxia, given mutations that affect the function of HIF1, such as kidney cancers, or those that develop in low oxygen conditions, such as cells found in the middle of the tumor mass ", he explains.
“The most significant aspect of our study is the identification of a therapeutic target, such as the receptor sensitive to IP3, and the use and development of a drug. She inhibits this receptor, selectively causing cancer cells to kill. This means, without causing death of normal cells, "concludes the researcher.
