With protons, Chilean researchers seek new cancer therapy

An investigation of the new Millennium Nucleus in NanoBioPhysics is guided by its director, José Antonio Gárate, who studies a membrane channel that transports protons. Specifically, try to be able to regulate it to find a cancer therapy.
Cells have a metabolism or functioning that produces protons inside, which correspond to small particles of positively charged matter that are in the atoms of all elements.
“In practical terms, by producing them, the medium of the cell acidifies, that is, it becomes more acidic. It’s like when you eat and feel acidity, because you have a lot of these particles and that causes the pH to drop. Then, it happens that the channels where they circulate open and transport them outwards,” explains Gárate.
Tumors are a group of dysregulated cells that grow a lot and have a very active metabolism, which leads them to produce a large number of protons. And tumors have this channel where they pass and that is working all the time to be able to release them.
“We are studying the possibility of inhibiting the action of this channel, and we have already seen that, for example, we can reduce the size of tumors for cancer therapy,” says the professional, who holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an academic at the University of Valparaíso.
A procedure of this type would be quite disruptive, in his opinion, since currently most treatments tend to act by destroying cells.
“That’s why chemotherapies and radiotherapies are so harmful, because they basically try to burn everything and thus destroy the tumor,” he says. In this novel work, a more specific area of action is analyzed, taking advantage of the fact that this channel is expressed a lot in tumors and related cells. “We are looking at how to design drugs and trying to better understand the mechanism of this transport route,” says Gárate.
Regarding deadlines to have a treatment, the national scientist reports that soon they will have more related publications.
“We have understood and regulated this proton channel and already have quite a bit of evidence that it is a therapeutic target for the treatment of cancer. For example, we have shown with evidence that it can affect the growth of tumors in mice,” he says.
Looking for a treatment
The final idea of proton research is to have a model drug, which after the relevant pre- and clinical studies, allows to combat certain types of cancer, something not too far away for the expert, since they already have the most important thing, the therapeutic target. Also, with the target or objective, which is the channel.
“Then we should test certain known molecules or drugs to see if these channels are inhibited and study the use of nanoparticles as a delivery route for the drug since we know that, by inhibiting the function of the membrane channel, tumor growth is inhibited,” says Gárate.
Once you have the results you should develop the final molecule and that’s where everything gets complicated or slowed down, since there are patent and other processes, such as a future approval of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), etc. “You also have to convince investors to take you to that and finance the generation of the drug, because the development process is very expensive and requires many steps that go beyond the capabilities of this group of researchers,” he says.
Protons are subatomic particles and that implies that studies must be carried out, mixing quantum chemistry, with biology, physics, etc. And simulation techniques are also required to understand the processes, so “we had to bring this group together in what we call nanophysics,” says Gárate.
The academic explains that with his equipment they can simulate these particles in the computer, using large servers, which correspond to supercomputers, which allow them to see them atomistically.
The expert says that with this technology they have been able to see each molecule and know which ones move with certain interventions. However, it is not an easy thing, as he indicates. “Getting to manipulate matter at this level is very complex, but you can still do it,” he says. In addition, he adds that after doing these studies, they should always be contrasted with experiments to confirm theories, analysis, etc.
Academic Association
The new Millennium Nucleus in NanoBioPhysics is composed of a transversal group of scientists from three universities, where santa María (USM), Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM) and la of Valparaíso (UV). In addition, it has the support of the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Center of Valparaíso (CINV).
Gárate and his team are looking for a responsible development of nanotechnology that requires understanding nano-bio interactions at a fundamental level.
Therefore, the group combines materials science, molecular simulation and biophysics, with an emphasis on statistical mechanics, quantitative experiments and simulation.
The rest of the researchers of the Nucleus are the doctors Valeria del Campo (USM), Natalia Hassan (UTEM), Carlos González and Eduardo Berríos (UV).
In addition to the main scientists, they have two post-doctorates and six postgraduate students from the doctoral programs in Biophysics and Computational Biology of the UV, and Chemistry of the UV and USM. From the organism explain that the

Original source in Spanish