An innovative project seeks to improve health from Aragon: "If they call you, come"
Augusts 19, 2024Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health 2024
Augusts 20, 2024
The work has been dedicated to Professor María Victoria Arruga, who recently died, and who was the "teacher" of the researcher Alberto J. Schuhmacher. The article has been one of the five highlighted among the 157 in the latest issue of the magazine on its website
The magazine cancers ha highlighted a review article from the Molecular Oncology group of the Aragón Health Research Institute (IIS Aragón) in which they analyze new therapies, the conjugates antibody-drug (ADC), its evolution and discuss the use of nanoantibodies for the new generation of these drugs.
Typically, of all the chemotherapy treatment administered to a cancer patient, only 5% of the dose reaches the tumor. The rest can distribute throughout the body and contribute to the side effects commonly associated with these treatments. There are chemotherapies that could be very effective if they accumulated more in the tumor, but they are so toxic that they cannot be used.
“In recent years there has been a revolution thanks to ADCs "They use antibodies as if they were home delivery people transporting drugs in their backpacks and release them into the tumor cells," according to the oncologist. Victor Manuel Medina, main author of the work.
“Antibodies are proteins of our defenses, but they can be designed in the laboratory so that they recognize only tumor cells, like a delivery man with GPS. A very toxic drug can be attached to these antibodies and directed to the tumor. “So they carry and accumulate this ultratoxic medicine in the malignant cells and reduce the side effects of the treatment.”
Victor Manuel Medina, doctor and main author of the work.
"At IIS Aragón we go one step further– comments Alberto J. Schuhmacher, ARAID researcher and head of the Molecular Oncology group - and we use special, smaller antibodies called nanoantibodies. We are often criticized for wanting to make ADCs with nanoantibodies because they are cleared very quickly from the body. We think that “nanoADCs” have characteristics that make them more and faster reach the tumor, "They penetrate very well inside it and release the superchemo like a cluster bomb only inside the tumor."
The researcher Marta Baselga explains that “in this work we launch the debate, We gather the evidence and the state of the art. Although they have not yet reached the clinic, some nanoantibody-based ADCs are already being tested in experimental models. NanoADCs are small, but tough".
The work, highlighted by the magazine cancers, they have dedicated it to Professor María Victoria Arruga, who recently passed away. “I owe him a lot and I was fortunate to tell him many times. On my return to Zaragoza it was key, he went out of his way to help me have the best possible landing” - Schuhmacher recalls excitedly.
“She was my genetics teacher. She taught me what an oncogene and a tumor suppressor gene are. If today I research cancer it is because I learned molecular oncology from the best Teacher.”
Alberto J. Schuhmacher, ARAID researcher and head of the Molecular Oncology group.
On the left an ADC based on an antibody and on the right a nanoADC based on a nanoantibody. In yellow the toxic drug.
Source: IIS Aragon
Image: Molecular Oncology Group of the IIS Aragón
