2024-07-30 07:06:08
Lung cancer, there is a turning point: this is the medicine that can stop the disease
An international research group led by the Institute of Biomedical Technologies of the National Research Council of Pisa (Cnr-Itb), also composed by professors from the United States and Singapore, discovered as the Unesbulin, a medicine for the treatment of tumors, can have an effect on the microenvironment of the tumor of the lung, reducing its growth. Look processor available in open access starting today on Cancer Research Communications, the official journal of the prestigious American Association for Cancer Research.
The group – led by Elena Levantini and with Giorgia Maroni as the first author of the study, both researchers from Cnr-Itb, used the innovative method of high-quality literature – that is, the method intended to identification of a set of RNA sequences. single cell – and imaging techniques, to demonstrate how Unesbulin can prevent interactions between tumor cells and surrounding cells such as endothelial cells, fibroblasts and immune cells, important for tumor growth.
“Unesbulin drug, currently undergoing clinical trials in the United States, acts by blocking BMI1, an oncogene involved in lung tumors”, explains Elena Levantini (Cnr-Itb), researcher in charge of the Molecular Oncology Center of the Institute, at Pisa. “Our research focuses on animal models of lung cancer carrying mutations in the EGFR gene, which are present in approximately 10-15% of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a type of lung cancer that most common. Such mutations make tumor cells more sensitive to a class of drugs called EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), which block the activity of the mutated receptor. However, these drugs do not work well in all patients, and many develop drug resistance over time, requiring the identification of new drug treatments.”
“We discovered that – in addition to reducing the number of tumor cells – Unesbulin has a great effect on the tumor microenvironment, a key factor for tumor progression and response to therapy: it, in fact, prevents the communication between tumor cells and the cells .of the tumor area that supports the growth and survival of the tumor by supplying it with nutrients”, adds Giorgia Maroni (Cnr-Itb). “The drug interferes with their function and reduces their value: as a result, tumors treated with Unesbulin are smaller than untreated ones. A decrease in tumor growth is shown by MRI tests. “
The research opens new avenues for developing new therapeutic strategies for treating a disease currently responsible for the majority of cancer deaths worldwide., for which therapeutic options are, unfortunately, still very limited. “In particular, new perspectives are emerging for the treatment of lung cancer with EGFR mutations, which often develop resistance to current treatments: Unesbulin can potentially overcome this resistance and improve its effectiveness,” Levantini, who has decided to tested Unesbulin in the fight against lung tumors. “The next steps, in fact, will be to investigate the molecular mechanisms that cause these types of resistance to therapies, and to test the effectiveness of treatment with Unesbulin in humans, but not before careful validation of the data. Further, the goal is to test the drug in other types of lung cancer and in other solid tumors.”
The study also shows the importance of a an integrated approach to the study of pathology, which combines single-cell transcriptomic techniques and MRI imaging to investigate tumor complexity and dynamics in response to treatment. The Cnr-Itb bioinformatics group, led by Ivan Merelli and Roberta Alfieri, also participated in the research, which analyzed the RNA sequence of single cells; The department of translational research and new technologies in medicine and surgery of the University of Pisa and the NEST laboratory of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa.
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