Russia: Invention of a drug that prevents the appearance of metastases

According to the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, cancer is caused by genetic changes in cells, which leads to their uncontrolled division and spread throughout the body. Of course, the body’s immune system destroys most of them, but some may not die and enter a state of “hibernation” for a long time. This depends on the level of each person’s immunity.

When cancer cells emerge from dormancy, they transform into tumor stem cells, which leads to the emergence of secondary foci of the disease – metastases, which, according to researchers, are the main cause of death from cancer.
According to the researchers, practically all modern anti-cancer drugs are aimed at treating only the primary tumor and are not able to fight cancer cells that have already spread throughout the body, which are copies of the primary tumor with increased resistance to drugs.

Scientists from the Siberian State Medical University, the Tomsk National Research Medical Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Tomsk University have created an RNA-based drug that blocks genes that promote the transition of cancer cells that have emerged from a dormant state into tumor stem cells.
“MicroRNAs, the combination of which forms the basis of the drug, affect genes that ‘activate’ cancer cells, and by suppressing these genes that regulate stemness, it is possible, according to the results of the experiments, to prevent the appearance of metastases,” says Professor Elena Odot from the university.

According to her, this drug does not affect the primary tumor and does not affect its development, but it does not allow metastases to develop in other organs of the body.

The innovators plan to produce drug doses and begin clinical trials that might last 5-6 years.

Source: Novosti