A study led by the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), and in which researchers from the University of Granada, the Center for Genomics and Oncology Research and the Pompeu Fabra University have participated, has developed a new experimental therapy that reduces 90% the presence of foci of malignant melanoma metastasis in the lung . The results, tested in mice, show the therapeutic potential of inhibitors of the PARP enzyme , a key molecule in the repair of induced DNA damage. The research has been published in the journal PLOS Genetics .
"Metastasis is the spread of invasive cells of a tumor from the place where it originates to other parts of the body, and is the cause of the vast majority of mortality related to solid tumors", explains Javier Oliver, researcher at the Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicina López Neyra from the CSIC.
The new work describes the ability of the PARP enzyme to regulate the expression of factors such as vimentin and VE? Cadherin, proteins that are involved in the formation of new vessels around the tumor (angiogenesis) and in malignant transformation processes, including acquisition invasive properties. In other words, the PARP enzyme controls whether enough food reaches the tumor and allows tumor cells to move, migrate, and colonize distant organs. By inhibiting it, therefore, it is possible to prevent a tumor from invading the lung in a process of metastasis.
