Yesterday we witnessed one of the great speeches that CNIO imparts within its Distinguished Seminars. The guest was Dr.. Celeste Simon, scientific director Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute (AFCRI).

During his talk entitled: “Metabolic adaptations during tumor progression”, la Dra. Celeste nos ha hablado sobre como las células del cáncer tienen que encontrar un equilibrio entre sobrevivir ante la toxicidad del medio que les rodea y proliferar, expand its biomass, evade the immune system, etc. Among the difficult conditions in which live tumor cells is hypoxia, Or what is the same, low oxygen concentrations. In response to hypoxia, stabilization and expression of a transcription factor called HIF-1 is induced, which regulates multiple cellular processes such as angiogenesis, migration and invasion mechanisms, inflammation or metabolism etc., allowing tumor cells adapt and survive in these conditions.

Tras comparar muestras de ARN de Carcinoma Renal de células claras (ccRCC) normal tissue, la Dra. Simon and his team have discovered that many of the enzymes that regulate metabolism are expressed at very low levels (or even expressed) in tumor tissues. As an example, He told us about FBP1, which it seems to be able to inhibit HIF-1, and ARG2 well as ASS1, which they are part of the urea cycle. Surprisingly, it seems that these enzymes behave as tumor suppressors in normal and that is why so your expression ends up being eliminated in various tumor types, not only in ccRCC. Which leaves us with the question: Could we design drugs to regulate the expression of these missing enzymes and turn them into therapeutic targets?