In laboratory experiments on rats, found that blocking c-Fos protein can interfere with the development and progression of brain cancer. Globally, the study of this disease does not present a major advancement because it is very difficult to smuggle drugs into the blood-brain barrier.
Unique in the world of work this problem from this approach, Chemical Biology Research Center (Ciquibic) from UNC to try to determine whether blocking c-Fos protein reasonable measures to prevent the growth of tumors in the brain.
“We were always the basic sciences, namely the study is not intended to cure brain cancer, but to understand how cells work. And in the process of finding a new role for c-Fos protein,” explains Beatriz Caputto, director of the research team responsible for the project.
The researchers began working with human tumors provided the surgeon from the city of Cordoba and then genetically engineered mice, ie mice engineered to develop a specific tumor or a syndrome similar to human suffering. At first, scientists introduced the tumors that developed in the twentieth day and that, if not treated in time 10, causing the death of the animal. “We injected the tumors, we grew six days and we add a component that only stops the protein c-Fos. Blacklist production only, the tumors did not grow. We do about 15 experiments and never grow. We are now trying to stop the c-Fos in mouse models tumors that spontaneously develop and saw that it keeps growing, “said Caputto.
Around the world, research on brain cancer was a major advancement in treatment because it is very difficult to smuggle drugs into the blood-brain barrier. And here is a different disease from what may happen in other parts of the body where drug access is easier. The therapeutic possibilities will open up the discovery of c-Fos protein function aims to improve care by using new and more specific targets. Protein-mediating activities in the central nervous system tumors and not found in healthy tissue, which is very important in the clinical sense if one thinks to get the exact target that attacks tumor growth. The idea is to always intervene in diseased tissues and not in the healthy. So this research has a therapeutic interest.
Team Manager explained that in experiments with mice the protein was blocked in the whole body, which is not feasible in humans because, although not measured, there must be c-Fos in the blood system and introduce the block in the whole body can be very aggressive to people. Therefore, he recognized the need to be careful with the results. “You read the magazines and publications in which every day cure disease in mice, but in humans this occurs only a small proportion of cases. This is a very large and complex, we are still in the laboratory and do nothing like a clinic,” he added.
Tags: blood-brain barrier, c-Fos protein, Cancer, Chemical Biology, human tumors, progression of brain, smuggle drugs, Tumors, Tumors in The Brain