One of the great objectives of this 67th Congress of the SEFH is to reflect on future of the profession, share knowledge that can glimpse significant advances to improve patient care. One of the big issues that can mean a before and following in the profession are the new therapies and the speed at which they progress. This has been the inaugural theme of the current edition, by the UCM professor Maria Vallet-Regíwhich has put the focus on the precision medicine as the breakthrough in clinical treatments.
María Vallet, Emeritus Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, leads the group of Smart Biomaterials Research (GIBI) who studies mesoporous ceramic biomaterials with biomedical applications and that they can have a great impact on precision medicine on many levels. These mesoporotic silica particles make it possible to load drugs or various types of drugs to treat, for example, tumor processes or bacterial infections that secrete biofilm and do not allow penetration, among other applications.
The great advance of this treatment strategy is that it makes possible insert internally into the pores of the bioparticles significant amounts of drug, greater than those allowed by liposomes. On the outside of these silica molecules, biomarkers or chemicals can be incorporated to direct the particle directly to the tumor, a bone or the site of infection. In this way it maximizes efficacy and minimizes toxicity. These selective methods allow acting without damaging the healthy cells of the rest of the organs.
Silica nanoparticles do not circulate throughout the body, but transport the drug to the appropriate area and penetrate the tumor where they are released in a controlled manner. Upon detecting cancer cells, the nanoparticles are activated and release the drug. They can also carry antibiotics to cure infections.
Patient safety
One of the major drawbacks is that therapies once morest tumors have great toxicity, such as cytotoxics, antineoplastic or anticancer drugs. One of the main lines of research at present is to develop targeted immunotherapy strategies to avoid the toxicity of traditional cytostatics. Drugs are not innocuous and minimizing their toxic effects might be a very important advance for treatments. Patient safety is something that is of great concern to health professionals and is one of the main lines of discussion in Congress. In fact, this is the first year in which patients have participated in the Scientific Organizing Committee so that their needs are recognized.
There’s still a way to go
The conclusion is that treatments are advancing inexorably and in the near future individualized and targeted therapies will allow working with maximum safety and minimum toxicity for all patients. The part of translational medicine that allows moving from basic to clinical research is still missing. At least you have to wait between five and ten years for them to become a reality. For this reason, experts point out that much remains to be done before regulatory authorities authorize its use.
