MEXICO – The Ensenada Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education (CICESE) in Baja California, is conducting a study to determine the causes of cancer cells in the bones expanding and producing more tumors.

In an interview with the News Agency of the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT), researcher Patricia Juarez Camacho said the second objective of the study is to identify new molecules and evaluate existing ones.

This, he said, is to characterize their mode of action and propose new therapies to treat cancer. He added that in his laboratory they focus on making targeted therapy against breast cancer, by studying major pathways signaling pathways that regulate cancer and selected molecular targets that allow them to design therapeutic strategies aimed, in particular, at cancer cells.

The study also involved characterizing the cellular level of the effect of molecules with therapeutic use derived from plants and marine organisms as well as nanoparticles to improve drug delivery in cancer cells.

The researcher said that to check the efficiency of functional therapy assays of cells are made and after obtaining results in vitro in vivo studies are done, which is used to study new molecules.

To do this, the researchers used mice injected with cancer cells in different parts of the body, especially the bones and that is where you can evaluate the growth of tumors, explained the specialist.

Juarez Camacho said his studies focused particularly on breast cancer and prostate cancer, as 80 percent of these patients develop bone metastases.

He said that bone, by its rigidity, provides cancer cells walls that gives a resistance to blood flow, provides protection and other is filled with nutrients so that cancer cells may have abundant food.

Moreover, he added, it was found that there is interaction between bone cells and cancer to the extent that come to create a microenvironment cells, a basic condition for cancer cells live there.

The researcher noted that studies performed beyond knowing the factors that promote spread of, also seeking information to help design more effective therapies.

The specialist collaborates with researchers from the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (CNyN) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), to develop nanoparticles to optimize the release of already known therapies and fight, specifically, the cancer cells.