An investigation led by theSuperior Council of Scientific Investigations(CSIC) has verified that two oncoproteins, Vav2 and Vav3 control part of the development of one of the most frequent skin cancers,squamous cell carcinoma. The finding could be used to create drug targets against this type of tumor and against other skin diseases such as psoriasis.
Squamous cell carcinoma is one of the most common skin cancers in the world. It is easily treatable and rarely becomes fatal, but sometimes it reaches highly developed stages, making it difficult to treat.
Vav proteins are two skin cancer activators that are related to the mobility and proliferation of cells. Thanks to their experiment with genetically modified mice, the researchers simulated the effect that the elimination of these proteins would have. As the CSIC scientist Xosé Bustelo, from the Salamanca Cancer Research Center explains, “with this strategy, we wanted to simulate the effect that the systemic use of inhibitors against these two proteins would have on the initiation and progression of skin tumors and, at the same time, to assess the collateral effects that said inhibition could cause in normal non-tumor skin ”.
And the results were more than satisfactory.This removal decreased induced skin tumors in mice and did not show any effect on normal skin development., which indicates that it would specifically affect the viability of tumor cells.
In the words of Mauricio Menacho? Márquez, CSIC researcher at the Salamanca Cancer Research Center, “these experiments indicate that Vav2 and Vav3 play an important role in the initiation and development of skin cancers by promoting cell signaling pathways in cancer cells related to cell survival to damaged DNA, proliferation and modification of the tissue microenvironment where these cells grow and develop ”. Furthermore, as explained by the same researcher, “many of these protumorigenic programs are activated in other common skin diseases, as is the case of psoriasis ”, which increases the importance of this new scientific finding.
The study, recently published in the journalPLOS Biology, has had the collaboration of the Center for Molecular Biology “Severo Ochoa” of the CSIC and the Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research.
