In this context, the professor of the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Chile together with a group of researchers from the Advanced Center for Chronic Diseases (ACCDIS) managed to identify one of the molecules involved in the metastasis of tumor cells: "Rab 5".
"This protein is in normal and tumor cells, but in the latter it is uncontrolled. We wondered why and what we found is that in tumors that are subjected to a strong stress condition due to lack of nutrients and oxygen, it causes them to grow. This stress condition causes this protein to go out of control and the tumor cell becomes more aggressive and more metastatic," explained Professor Torres.
The researchers' work led them to conclude that, by removing this molecule from tumor cells using molecular biology techniques, "we saw that the cell stops moving, migrating and invading, and metastasizes less".
This discovery opens a new window in the battle against cancer, and in the creation of medical treatments based on drugs "that will attack this protein, generating a benefit for the patient, prolonging survival and reducing the incidence of metastasis".
These advances have recently been published in the prestigious journal Oncotarget.
Source: Bío-Bío Chile.