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Ginés Luengo Gil, biologist and doctor of Medicine from the University of Murcia (UMU), receives the prize Illustrious Official College of Physicians of the Region of Murcia.
This has been granted by the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery of the Region of Murcia in the category of general medical work, with the study 'Role of miR-18a in breast cancer', whose content was unpublished.
The biologist confirmed that this microRNA plays an important role in tumor proliferation, associating its expression with a proproliferative state and with more aggressive tumor characteristics.
The results obtained in a clinical series of neoadjuvant (preoperative) indicate that if miR-18a is high in the tumors of the patients, they have worse overall survival and free of disease (time that the patient is from when you treat her until it appears new the disease).
"This was especially observed in the tumor that resists after treatment," explains the expert.
On the other hand, it is directly associated with classical markers of proliferation such as the protein ki-67 or MYBL2.
That is, these tumors are more aggressive and grow faster than normal.
On the other hand, it was verified in in silico analysis, through bioinformatic programs, as well as in vitro with cell cultures, that this microRNA regulates certain classic targets in the treatment of breast cancer as the estrogen receptor.
It is a protein that is inside cells and knowing their status helps doctors decide how to treat the disease.
The scientist explains that "it regulates the estrogen receptor negatively, when miR-18a increases, it decreases".
On the other hand, the genes are transcribed in messenger RNA, which we call transcription, and the messenger RNAs in turn are translated into proteins.
In this sense, it was shown that it exclusively blocks the translation of the protein and not its transcription.
MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs, which regulate the expression of coding genes.
The latter are genes that produce messenger RNAs that result in the expression of proteins that cells need to perform many of their functions.
In this sense, microRNAs play an important role in the regulation of the process, acting as silencers of its expression.
The clinical study was conducted with 121 patients with locally advanced breast cancer who were treated with neoadjuvant or preoperative chemotherapy.
First, biopsies of the tumor were taken to determine its anatomopathological characteristics, then the patients were treated with preoperative chemotherapy and finally the tumor was removed.
"From these samples we extracted the RNA from before and after the treatment and we did RT-qPCR, a methodology that allows us to analyze the level of expression of specific genes." Thus, we quantified miR-18a and studied in the series as a whole how it was related. with the anatomopathological characteristics of the tumor, with the response to treatment and prognosis, as well as with its molecular targets "emphasizes the researcher.
This work forms part of the doctoral thesis of Dr. Ginés Luengo Gil, directed by Dr. Francisco Ayala de la Peña, Head of Section of Medical Oncology of General University Hospital Morales Meseguer and professor of UMU, and Dr. Vicente Vicente García, Head of the Hematology and Medical Oncology Service of the Morales Meseguer University Hospital and Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Murcia.
Participants included researchers from the Morales Meseguer University Hospital, the Regional Blood Donation Center, the IMIB, the Santa Lucía University General Hospital and the University of Murcia.
The researchers hope to be able to publish the results soon in journals of recognized prestige in the field of oncology.
Source: Universidad de Murcia
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