INVESTIGADORES
MALDONADO GALDEANO Maria Carolina
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
POTENCIAL CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF CAMPTOTHECINS
Autor/es:
PAULA JENKINS; MELISSA MARTINEZ; ELIZABETH PYTON; ALEJANDRA DE MORENO; CAROLINA MALDONADO; GABRIELA PERDIGÓN; CECILIA M. WHITACRE
Lugar:
San Diego, California
Reunión:
Congreso; Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS); 2003
Resumen:
The camptothecins (CPTs) are a family of chemotherapeutic drugs currently used for the treatment several types of cancer including colon cancer. The CPTs induce DNA damage in replicating cells by forming a cleavable complex with the Topoisomerase (Topo I) enzyme and with the DNA.. This interference with Topo I activity results in programmed cell death which constitutes the basis for its therapeutic properties. We have recently shown that the CPT analogue Topotecan (TPT), inhibits focal adhesion kinase (FAK) synthesis. Since FAK is involved in angiogenesis, essential to tumor growth, we have hypothesized that TPT may prevent the development of solid tumors by inhibiting angiogenesis. Here we describe our studies on the potential chemopreventive effects of TPT on colon cancer induced by 1,2 dimethylhydrazine (DMH) in a BALB/c mice model. Animals were treated with 0.5mg/Kg body weight TPT (three consecutive days) prior to, and during DMH treatment (three alternate days/week for 10 weeks). The animals were sacrificed at various times, the intestines were then excised, fixed and included in paraffin or histological evaluation to assess tumor development. Preliminary results on this ongoing research are presented. The elucidation of the potencial benefits of CPTs as chemopreventive agents may have important implications in the treatment of high-risk and recovering cancer patients. This research was supported by KO1-CA77065 and MIRT-NIH grant and PICT 2000nº10068.