Madrid. Omomyc, a therapeutic protein developed at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) already used to control many primary tumors, demonstrated for the first time its anti-metastatic capacity against breast cancer.
It has long been known that the MYC gene plays an important role in the development of many types of tumors. On the other hand, there is some controversy about how it can affect the development of metastases and some studies even suggest that inhibiting MYC could enhance this process.
Now, this new work provides, for the first time, light on the subject. Specifically, the efficacy of omomyc, a MYC-inhibiting protein, has been analyzed to control the progression of metastatic breast cancer, and the results obtained have been “very positive”.
In the research, the results of which are published in the journal Cancer Research Communications, Different experiments were carried out both in vitro What live in order to know how it impacted breast cancer metastases.
very positive response
“The response has been very positive and in all cases it has been found that it has significant antimetastatic activity, contrary to what had been speculated,” said Daniel Massó, Peptomyc researcher and first author of the work.
“So far we have shown that omomyc is effective in controlling many primary tumors. Now, in addition, we have seen that it is an efficient drug by blocking the invasion, establishment and growth of metastases in breast cancer”, added Laura Soucek, co-director of Translational and Preclinical Research and head of the Antitumor Therapies Modeling Group. of VHIO, research professor at Icrea and co-founder and executive director of Peptomyc, who also participated in this research.
For decades, cancer research has shown that the MYC gene plays an important role in the development of almost all solid tumors. However, there was also a widespread belief that it was an unattainable target.
However, everything changed more than 20 years ago, when Soucek considered that this did not have to be the case. As a result of their effort and work, omomyc was born, a miniprotein capable of inhibiting MYC, which, after multiple preclinical studies whose results have gone around the world, is already being tested in patients, in a clinical trial that began in May last year in VHIO.
Prior to the trial, omomyc had already demonstrated potent activity in multiple tumor cell lines and mouse cancer models, regardless of their tissue of origin and their mutations.
However, all of the research to date with this drug has focused on primary tumors and its efficacy against metastatic disease has never been proven.
Some studies suggested that MYC could play an antimetastatic role, so its inhibition could be detrimental.
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