ZAP // Dall-E-2
Compound created in Portugal is the first described to block the three main mutations of the most common gene in these cancers.
A team involving researchers from the School of Sciences of the University of Minho and the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon was awarded.
In question is a compound created in Portugal, the first described block the three main gene mutations most common in colorectal and pancreatic cancer.
The team won a prize of 20,000 euros, in the first edition of the “Basinnov Innovation Award 2024”, to be used in pre-clinical trials.
The compound is called PMC79. It is based on ruthenium metal and acts as a kind of “magic bullet” in gene mutations KRAS, linked to the development of several cancers, such as colorectal and pancreatic.
O KRAS was considered an “invincible” or “untreatable” gene. In recent decades, several studies have been carried out and nothing seems to work.
Inhibitors that have appeared on the market in recent times have limited efficacy in colorectal and pancreatic cancers, in which PMC79 appears to be promising.
“Our compound is first capable of specifically inhibiting three of the most frequent KRAS mutations (G12D, G12V and G13D), being the only one to inhibit G12V, without affecting the normal protein, both in vitro in cancer cells in the laboratory and in vivo in mouse models of cancer ”, explain Ana Preto and Andreia Valente, in a statement sent to ZAP.
This result was shown in laboratory cells and in mice and, if pre-clinical and clinical trials go well in the coming years, the drug could be decisive in these and other cancers with those mutations, such as those of the lung, ovary and uterus.
