A drug has been created in Russia that prevents the appearance of metastases

MOSCOW, July 11. A drug for the prevention of metastasis in cancer was created by specialists from Siberian State Medical University as part of a research team. According to the authors, the compound developed based on nucleic acids can prevent the appearance of metastases after removal of the primary tumor. The results are presented in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
Cancer occurs due to genetic changes in cells, leading to their uncontrolled division and spread throughout the body. Most of them are destroyed by the immune system, but some may not die and enter a state of “rest” for a long time. This depends on the immunity of each individual person, said scientists from the Siberian State Medical University (Siberian State Medical University).

Coming out of the «resting» state, cancer cells turn into tumor stem cells, which leads to the formation of secondary foci of pathology — metastases, which, according to researchers, are the main cause of death from cancer.

The university noted that almost all modern anticancer drugs are aimed at treating only the primary tumor and are not able to fight cancer cells that have already spread throughout the body, which are clones of the primary tumor with increased resistance to drugs.
The “survivability” of clones is due to the increase in the malignant properties of the tumor during its development. It is constantly changing, and as a result of natural selection, the fittest and most malignant clone survives. Therefore, chemotherapy, effective in the first stages of treatment, may not destroy all subsequent transformed tumor cells, experts emphasized.

Scientists from the Siberian State Medical University, Tomsk National Research Medical Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Tomsk State University have developed a drug based on RNA that blocks genes that facilitate the transition of cancer cells that have left their «resting» state into tumor stem cells.
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«MicroRNAs, the combination of which forms the basis of the drug, affect the genes that «activate» cancer cells. By blocking these genes that regulate stemness, we can, according to experimental data, prevent the occurrence of metastases,» said one of the authors of the research, Professor of the Department of Pathophysiology at the Siberian State Medical University Elena Udut.

She added that the drug does not affect the primary tumor and does not affect its evolution, but does not allow metastases to develop in other organs.

In the future, specialists plan to develop a finished dosage form and begin clinical trials. According to experts, bringing the drug to market will take a long time even under favorable conditions, since the trials during which scientists will evaluate the effect of the drug on the development of metastases will last at least 5-6 years.

The study is being implemented within the framework of the strategic project «Precision Medicine» of the «Priority-2030» program of the national project «Science and universities», of which the Siberian State Medical University is a participant.