A significant progress in cervical cancer research studies

"The proteomics, the collective study of proteins, has led to a more detailed analysis of what really happens in a cell, no matter if it belongs to an animal, vegetal or a microorganism. The information obtained can be used to modify the cells and generate great health benefits" says chemist Myriam Sánches, Hormone Research group director (GIH for its acronym in Spanish) of the chemistry department of Universidad Nacional, pioneer in implementing this technique for the study of diseases like cervical cancer in the country.

This is considered to be the most frequent type of cancer in women, and it is commonly connected to places such as developing countries where, according to the National Cancer Centre, 80 percent of the registered cases in the world occur.

The big paradox is that the main cause of death in affected patients occurs because of the cancer metastasis or dissemination towards other organs, a special characteristic of this malignant tumor which has let to its study using proteomics, a strong scientific tool that reveals in detail the molecular aspects of the disease.

During the last decade, supported by the Nacional Cancer Center, the GIH has studied derivative cell lines of tumors from women with cervical cancer, and due to proteomics application, it has identified 22 proteins in the last three years related to the migration and cell invasion process. From this group, six proteins had not been previously identified and they could be pharmacological targets, that is to say, they can be useful to create medicines to control metastasis.

For analyzing the samples, researches had to send them to the Stockholm University (Sweden) and the Federal University in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), to which the GIH has established cooperation agreements due to the lack of specialized equipment for this type of studies in the country.

"In Colombia, Despite the presence of suitable professionals for this type of analysis, there are no laboratories with the necessarily equipments to perform a complete proteomic study" says professor Sánches.

In Latin America, there are some labs with the necessarily facilities to perform the scientific tasks: in Venezuela, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas; in Uruguay, the Instituto Pasteur in Montevideo, and in Chile, the Proteomics Lab in the Universidad Católica.

Cuba, for instance, has become the world leader in the application of technologies in this field. Currently, the centreforgenetic and biotechnology engineering in La Habana has one of the few research groups in the world capable of identifying about 100 percent of the proteins in a simple microorganism.

Like humans, each protein has a unique characteristic that makes it different from the rest. This tells how complex proteomics is and remarks that it requires both, sophisticated techniques for its application and a big pedagogic effort to overcome the scientist"s lack of information about the topic in a region where cervical cancer figures should be an issue from the past, says professor Myriam Sánches.