lunedì 31 marzo 2014

RICERCA MEDICA: DIAGNOSTICA PER IMMAGINI ED APPLICAZIONI CON INNOVATIVI BREVETTI


Del Dott. Giuseppe Cotellessa (ENEA)

Il procedimento del brevetto:


 può essere utile nella lotta contro il cancro quando è applicato alle metodologie dell’analisi dell’immagine.


(ESTRATTO IN LINGUA INGLESE LEGGIBILE IN ALTRE LINGUE CON IL TRADUTTORE DI GOOGLE CROME)

“A Synthesis of the Beauty and Complexity of How We View Cancer”

Author: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP


This document has covered a broad spectrum of the research, translational biology, diagnostics (both laboratory and imaging methodologies), and treatments for a variety of cancers, mainly by organs, and selectively by the most common cancers seen in human populations. A number of observations stand out on review of all the material presented. 1. The most common cancers affecting humans is spread worldwide, with some variation by region. 2. Cancers within geographic regions may be expressed differently in relationship to population migrations, the incidence of specific environmental pollutants, occurrence of insect transmitted and sexually transmitted diseases (HIV, HCV, HPV), and possibly according to age, or relationship to ultraviolet or high dose radiation exposure. 3. Cancers are expressed within generally recognized age timelines. For example, acute lymphocytic leukemia and neuroblastoma in children under 10 years age; malignant giant cell tumor and osteosarcoma in the third and fourth decade; prostate cancer and breast cancer over age 40, and are more aggressive at an earlier age, both having a strong sex hormone dependence. 4. There is dispute about the effectiveness of screening for cancer with respect to what age, excessive risk in treatment modality, and the duration of progression free survival. Despite the evidence of several years potential life extension, a long term survival of 10 years is not the expected outcome. However, the quality of life in the remaining years is a valid point in favor of progress. 5. There has been a significant reduction in toxicity of treatment, but attention has been focused on a patient-centric decision process. 6. There has been a dramatic improvement in surgical approaches, post-surgical surveillance, and in diagnosis by invasive and noninvasive methods, especially in the combination of needle biopsy and imaging techniques. 7. There is significant variation within cancer cell types with respect to disease-free survival.
The work presented has several main components: First, there is the biology and mechanisms involved in carcinogenesis related to (1) mutations; (2) carcinogenesis; (3) cell regulatory mechanisms; (4) cell signaling pathways; (5) apoptosis (6) ubitination (7) mitochondrial dysfunction; (8) cell-cell interactions; (9) cell migration; (10) metastasis. Then there are large portions covering (1) imaging; (2) specific targeted therapy; (3) nanotechology-based therapy; (4) specific organ-type cancers; (5) genomics-based testing; (6) circulating cancer cells; (7) miRNAs; (8) siRNAs; (9) cancer immunology and (10) immunotherapy.
Classically, we refer to cancer development in terms of the germ cell layers – ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. These are formative in embryonic development. The most active development occurs during embryonic development, with a high growth rate of cells and also a high utilization of energy. The cells utilize oxidation for energy in this period characterized by movement of cells in differentiation and organogenesis. This was observed to be unlike the cell metabolism in carcinogenesis, which is characterized by impaired mitochondrial function and reliance on lactate production for energy – termed anaerobic glycolysis, as investigated by Meyerhof, Embden, Warburg, Szent-Gyorgy, H. Krebs, Theorell, AV Hill, B Chance, P Mitchell, P Boyer, F Lippman, and others.
In addition, the body economy has been divided into two major metabolic compartments: fat and lean body mass (LBM), which is further denoted as visceral and structural. This denotes the gut, kidneys, liver, lung, pancreas, sexual organs, endocrines, brain and fat cells in one compartment, and skeletal muscle, bone and cardiovascular in another. LBM is calculated as fat free mass. Further, brown fat is distinguished from white fat. But this was a first layer of construction of the human body. One peels away this layer to find a second layer. For example, the gut viscera have an inner (outer) epithelial layer, a muscularis, and a deep epithelium, which has circulation and fat. There is also an interstitium between the gut epithelium and muscularis. The lung has an epithelium exposed to the airspaces, then capillaries, and then epithelium, designed for exchange of O2 and CO2, the source of heat generation. The pancreas has an endocrine portion in the islets that are embedded in an exocrine secretory organ. The sexual organs have a combination of glandular structures embedded in a mesothelium.
The structural compartment is entirely accounted for by the force of contraction. If this is purely anatomical, that is not really the case when one goes into the functioning substructures of these tissues – cytoplasm, endoplasmic reticulum (ribosomal), mitochondria, liposomes, chromatin apparatus, cell membrane and vesicles. Within and between these structures are the working and interacting mechanisms of the cell in its unique role. What ties these together was first thought to be found in the dogma following the discovery of the genetic code in 1953 that begat DNA to RNA to protein.
This led to many other discoveries that made it clear that it was only a first approximation. It did not account for noncoding DNA, which became unmasked with the culmination of the Human Genome Project and concurrent advances in genomics (mtDNA, mtRNA, siRNA, exosomes, proteomics, synthetic biology, predictive analytics, and regulatory pathways directed by signaling molecules. Here is a list of signaling pathways: 1. JAK-STAT 2. GPCR 3. Endocrine 4. Cytochemical 5. RTK 6. P13K 7. NF-KB 8. MAPK 9. Ubiquitin 10. TGF-beta 11. Stem cell These signaling pathways have become the basis for the discovery of inhibitors of signaling pathways (suppressors), as well as activators, as these have been considered as specific targets for selective therapy. (.See Figure below) Of course, extensive examination of these pathways has required that all such findings are validated based on the STRENGTH of their effect on the target and in the impact of suppression.






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