26/10/2011

Dr. Matilde Lleonart's team at Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) has discovered how small strings of genetic material play an important role in cellular immortality and therefore act on them could have consequences for the progress of the fight against cancer. These chains of genetic material called microRNAs and which function was until now almost unknown, are capable of regulating the expression of other genes. The characterization of therapeutic microRNAs opens the way to eradicate the malignancy, because if its function can be blocked they could induce senescence of the tumor cells. The result of this study, funded by the BBVA Foundation, is a review published in Medicinal Research Reviews which sets out the conclusions of these microRNAs.The research group of Oncology and Molecular Pathology at VHIR has worked for years in the study of cellular aging and cellular immortality. The feature that makes tumor cells as harmful is precisely this immortal ability, as they do not age or self-remove themselves, contrary to the behavior of healthy cells. This immortality of cancer cells causes tumors to grow without control and being so malignant. For this reason one of the great challenges of this research group was to identify microRNAs that make this immortality possible, to study mechanisms to deactivate the eternal youth so malignant cells can turn into mortal cells. This is also one of the bases of some antitumor treatments, which are focused on cellular senescence induction, seeking to induce cellular senescence leading to the elimination, by the body, of these cells that are metabolically active but unable to divide.