2023-08-21 14:15:53
Researchers have developed nanomaterials to obtain clinically relevant tumor markers in cancers of epithelial origin. Once the disease is diagnosed, a control of the treatment will be carried out to see if the concentrations of the markers decrease.
The work is the work of a team from the National University of San Luis (UNSL) in Argentina.
One project, led by Dr. Martín Fernández Baldo, has the goal of synthesizing and experimentally designing nanomaterials useful for immobilizing biomolecules. Specifically, immunosensors are developed.
The team chose two types of cancer to use two different markers for them. One is colorectal cancer, one of the most prevalent cancers in the world. It is a cancer that, when it can be detected, is usually at an advanced stage. Another is prostate cancer.
“That is where we want to present our imprint, with a development that allows us to detect cancer early and, in this way, be able to diagnose it. Once the patient is under a specific treatment, monitor the disease by evaluating if the concentrations of these markers begin to decrease, which would mean that the treatment is effective,” Fernández Baldo explained to Argentina Investiga.
Martin Fernandez Baldo. (Photo: UNSL Institutional Press)
On the other hand, a researcher graduated from the National University of San Luis and collaborator of the project, works in an oncological institute in Spain in obtaining a special sample that determines greater sensitivity and that is given from the separation of the formed elements. of the blood with the plasma. From this sample, a special treatment is carried out where extracellular vesicles are obtained.
“On the surface of these extracellular vesicles are the markers, and it is in the concentration of that part of the plasma that we achieve greater specificity in the studies. This means that this type of development, in this type of sample, has greater specificity because the markers appear in a significant way and gives us an early accurate diagnosis”, added the scientist.
“For these diseases there are two key research questions: on the one hand, the diagnosis; it is very possible that any type of cancer can be defeated if there is an early diagnosis. Then there is the therapeutic stage, and in this sense immunotherapies are very important”, explained the director. “This makes cancer no longer what it was years ago. We are having effective treatments with immunotherapy,” he added. (Source: Fabiola Gisel Aranda / National University of San Luis / Argentina Investiga)
#Nanotechnology #early #detection #prostate #colorectal #cancer