Text written in Basque and translated automatically by Elia without any subsequent editing. SEE ORIGINAL

Trying to stay metastatic

In recent years, there has been a great deal of research being done to combat cancer, but in many cases there is little success. At the Faculty of Chemical Sciences of San Sebastián, an important discovery has been made: the discovery of a molecule that may be able to block the pathway to metastasis of liver cancer. It does not eliminate the cancer, but it stops the metastasis.

A MOLECULE THAT INTERFERES WITH METASTASIS

Presenter:
In today’s society, cancer is a plague. In recent years, many studies have been carried out with the aim of combating cancer, in many cases with little success. But they have made an important discovery in the Faculty of Chemical Sciences of San Sebastián. A molecule that may be able to prevent metastasis of liver cancer has been discovered. It does not eliminate cancer, but it interferes with metastasis, a phenomenon that is responsible for the spread of cancer to other organs.

Video: In the
laboratories of the Faculty of Chemical Sciences of the University of the Basque Country, the molecule that can contribute to the development of the drug that in the future can oppose the metastasis of a specific
cancer in the liver has been born. The finding, for the time being, is only a prototype, but in tests with rats it has caused more than half of the liver metastases to stop.

Cancer develops in different stages. First, a single cancer cell multiplies uncontrollably with the formation of the original tumor. In an advanced stage of the disease, some of the cells in this original tumor are released, removed from the blood, and taken up by other tissues. The linkers of cancer cells adhere to the linkers of healthy cells. That is, they contaminate the remaining cells and produce new cells with the condition, thereby causing new tumors. That's the metastasis. The group, led by the chemist Fernando Cossío, has now obtained the molecule that opposes this metastasis of liver cancer, that is, the smallest particle of an artificially produced substance.

FERNANDO COSSÍO (Head of Research, explaining how the molecule works)

The molecule that has been created by this group of UPV researchers is, for the moment, only useful for a type of skin cancer, called melanoma B16. This very often leads to metastasis in the liver, which is the organ where the molecule discovered by the researchers influences.

So far, researchers have tested rats.

FERNANDO COSSÍO (Valuing the discovery they have made so far)

Fernando Cossio’s team has been working on this for about eight years now. Their goal was to interfere with the mechanisms of cancer and they created substances in the laboratory to test certain types of cancer. Thus, it was observed that a nascent molecule interfered with the spread of a type of liver cancer.

They've been tough years. Researchers have been working in the lab for hours with test tubes, spatulas, microscopes and clamps, but also with computers.

EIDER SAN SEBASTIAN (Group researcher explaining how the molecule has been designed)

With their computer design, chemists have achieved the skeleton of the molecule in vivo. It analyzes the feasibility of the proposal and begins to synthesize it if it is approved.

AIZPEA ZUBIA (Group researcher explaining how the molecule has been synthesized)

The team of researchers has carried out numerous tests in the laboratory trying to obtain the best prototype.

ZURIÑE IBARRONDO, JOURNALIST: The molecule has been designed and formed at the Faculty of Chemistry in San Sebastián and the tests to measure its effectiveness have been carried out at Pharmakine in Zamudio. We've been there.

The Pharmakine laboratories have carried out two types of tests with the molecule, in vitro and in vivo. First, the efficiency of the molecule in each phase of mestastasis has been investigated with cells; these are in vitro experiments.

The rats have then been tested, which are known as in vivo tests. After the analysis, the laboratory technicians know which is the ideal solution for the compound to be inoculated.

ANDER BIDAURRAZAGA (Researcher)

The researchers inoculated the tumor into the spleen of the rats and the metastasis took about 12 days to reach the liver. After this period, the rats are sacrificed and the liver is removed. The researchers have thus studied the size of the metastasis and the effect of the particle obtained in the laboratory.

In these images you can see the difference when the particle designed by the Cossio team has entered the game. In non-molecular trials, the livers are completely blackened because the cancer has won the match. In cases where the molecule has been inoculated, however, there are no tumors or very small metastases have formed. The resources

Human trials have not yet been carried out. First, they need to do more tests with rats to get the most suitable molecule. A large budget is essential for progress.

FERNANDO COSSIO (Explaining what they will do in the future).

At the moment, Dominion Pharmakine has the patent for this molecule, and we will have to wait several years to find out if it becomes a drug.