mesothelioma clinic : Researchers have discovered that cancer mesothelioma cells certain proteins in response to the heat, which help them survive if they are compatible with heat-based chemotherapy. Suppress the release of these protective proteins could improve the efficiency of the heat-based applications, according to a recent study in the Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology.
Hyper Thermal chemotherapy (with heated chemotherapy drugs to kill cancer cells) in mesothelioma patients, but with little success. In part, the lack of effectiveness is due to the late stage at which mesothelioma is usually diagnosed. It also has to do with the protection mechanisms in cancer cells. If mesothelioma cells under stress of heat, they produce heat shock proteins. These proteins protect cancer cells from heat, and activate the mechanism that pumps chemotherapy drugs from these cells so that they are very resistant to the effects of heat treatment, according to study lead author Michael Chiarello-Roth, PhD, Professor of Lung Cell Biology at University Hospital in Basel, Switzerland. But these heat-shock proteins, if secret, also help the body recognize cancer cells as foreign and stimulate the immune system to launch an attack against them.
The researchers wanted to determine whether the activation of heat shock proteins ultimately hurts or helps cancer cells, and if suppression of the release of these proteins could be the cancer cells more susceptible to the effects of heat. To this end, the researchers exposed both mesothelioma and non-cancer cells from the lining of the lungs to rising temperatures (98.6 - 107.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Although the heat is slowing the spread of the mesothelioma cells, but also reduced normal cell growth. And the heat triggered release of heat-shock proteins in cancer cells.
Signaling proteins (especially so-called P38 MAP-kinase) to promote the release of heat shock proteins in mesothelioma cells. When the researchers treated mesothelioma cells with chemicals that inhibit these signaling factors, the cancer cells much more sensitive to the effects of heat. Mesothelioma cell growth significantly reduced, while healthy cells were not affected. "If it is possible to suppress the expression of heat shock proteins, which mesothelioma cells remain sensitive to heat-induced cell death and possibly to chemotherapy (we have not tested the latter)," Dr. Roth says Chiarello.
Inhibition of heat shock proteins, or the cell that trigger signaling proteins their release during periods of heat stress could be a new option for treatment of mesothelioma. Recently, several pharmaceutical companies developing drugs for some inhibitor of cancer cell signaling proteins, and a few of these therapies are also in clinical studies. However, Dr. Roth says Chiarello, mesothelioma has not been included in these studies.
One of the challenges for research into mesothelioma is that it is relatively rare, as the search for drug therapies to be less profitable pharmaceutical companies. For this reason, mesothelioma is not so much as the other new research, more often of cancer. "Unfortunately, mesothelioma is not well funded, and it is difficult to obtain sufficient financial support for such investigations," said Dr. Roth says Chiarello.
Another challenge is in finding mesothelioma tissue on which to test new therapies. Animal tissues (eg from a rat) is not exactly replicate mesothelioma signal in human tissues, and thus not a very good research models.
For now, the inhibition of the release of heat shock proteins during heat-based chemotherapy remains a promising but still largely untested therapy mesothelioma.
Source: Roth M, Zhong J, Tamm M, Szilard J. mesothelioma cells escape Hsp40/Hsp70 heat stress by upregulating expression via mitogen-activated protein kinases. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology. 2009, doi: 10.1155/2009/451084. : mesothelioma clinic
Hyper Thermal chemotherapy (with heated chemotherapy drugs to kill cancer cells) in mesothelioma patients, but with little success. In part, the lack of effectiveness is due to the late stage at which mesothelioma is usually diagnosed. It also has to do with the protection mechanisms in cancer cells. If mesothelioma cells under stress of heat, they produce heat shock proteins. These proteins protect cancer cells from heat, and activate the mechanism that pumps chemotherapy drugs from these cells so that they are very resistant to the effects of heat treatment, according to study lead author Michael Chiarello-Roth, PhD, Professor of Lung Cell Biology at University Hospital in Basel, Switzerland. But these heat-shock proteins, if secret, also help the body recognize cancer cells as foreign and stimulate the immune system to launch an attack against them.
The researchers wanted to determine whether the activation of heat shock proteins ultimately hurts or helps cancer cells, and if suppression of the release of these proteins could be the cancer cells more susceptible to the effects of heat. To this end, the researchers exposed both mesothelioma and non-cancer cells from the lining of the lungs to rising temperatures (98.6 - 107.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Although the heat is slowing the spread of the mesothelioma cells, but also reduced normal cell growth. And the heat triggered release of heat-shock proteins in cancer cells.
Signaling proteins (especially so-called P38 MAP-kinase) to promote the release of heat shock proteins in mesothelioma cells. When the researchers treated mesothelioma cells with chemicals that inhibit these signaling factors, the cancer cells much more sensitive to the effects of heat. Mesothelioma cell growth significantly reduced, while healthy cells were not affected. "If it is possible to suppress the expression of heat shock proteins, which mesothelioma cells remain sensitive to heat-induced cell death and possibly to chemotherapy (we have not tested the latter)," Dr. Roth says Chiarello.
Inhibition of heat shock proteins, or the cell that trigger signaling proteins their release during periods of heat stress could be a new option for treatment of mesothelioma. Recently, several pharmaceutical companies developing drugs for some inhibitor of cancer cell signaling proteins, and a few of these therapies are also in clinical studies. However, Dr. Roth says Chiarello, mesothelioma has not been included in these studies.
One of the challenges for research into mesothelioma is that it is relatively rare, as the search for drug therapies to be less profitable pharmaceutical companies. For this reason, mesothelioma is not so much as the other new research, more often of cancer. "Unfortunately, mesothelioma is not well funded, and it is difficult to obtain sufficient financial support for such investigations," said Dr. Roth says Chiarello.
Another challenge is in finding mesothelioma tissue on which to test new therapies. Animal tissues (eg from a rat) is not exactly replicate mesothelioma signal in human tissues, and thus not a very good research models.
For now, the inhibition of the release of heat shock proteins during heat-based chemotherapy remains a promising but still largely untested therapy mesothelioma.
Source: Roth M, Zhong J, Tamm M, Szilard J. mesothelioma cells escape Hsp40/Hsp70 heat stress by upregulating expression via mitogen-activated protein kinases. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology. 2009, doi: 10.1155/2009/451084. : mesothelioma clinic
