Gastroenterology: New gene therapy may be expected to target the spread of acting bowel cancer and kill cancer cells

6, 2020 // -- In a recent study published in the international journal Gastroenterology, scientists from the South Australian Institute of Health and Medical Research and others analyzed whether gene therapy can help treat metastatic bowel cancer patients;
Photo Source: Susan Woods, researcher at South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, said: 'In bowel cancer, we all know that patients with the worst prognosis tend to have many fibroblasts in their bodies that promote or support tumor growth; In the paper, researchers reveal the molecular mechanisms by which cancer "corrupt" fibroblasts promote their growth, and shed light on a gene therapy that transports viruses or produces good fibroblast signals in tumor micro-environments. In the
paper, researchers developed a new gene therapy that transports good fibroblasts directly into supportive cells, and most bowel cancers are transferred to the body's liver tissue, and in preclinical studies, the new therapy works by injecting the only virus that targets the liver, which then produces more supportive cancer-supporting cell signals in the organ and reduces the tumor's eventual lifespan.
The gene therapy has previously been used to treat blood diseases in humans and thus in cancer treatment, and the researchers say they will continue to look further into whether it can treat other types of cancer that spread to the liver, such as lung, breast and other gastrointestinal cancers such as esophageal, stomach and pancreatic cancers.
original source: Hiroki Kobayashi et al. The balance of stromal BMP signaling mediated by GREM1 and ISLR drives colorectal carcinogenesis., Gastroenterology (2020). DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2020.11.011。