Nobel Prize in Medicine: the importance of discoveries

On the morning of this Monday, the new winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine. They were William Kaelin, Gregg Semenza and Peter Ratcliffe, who led studies on adaptation of cells to a variable oxygen supply, which helps fight against anemia and cancer.

he oxygen It's essential for cells because It is necessary to convert food into energy. But what the scientific community had long wondered was how the cells perceived the existing oxygen level and adapted to it. That's what these three researchers, two Americans and one Briton, were rewarded in Stockholm.

"The fundamental importance of oxygen has been known for centuries, but the process of adapting cells to changes in oxygen levels has long been a mystery." Nobel Prize this year rewards research that reveals the Molecular mechanisms produced during the adaptation of cells to the variable oxygen supply (in the body)", stressed the Nobel Assembly at its announcement and explained that the winners' results" are of fundamental importance to medicine and have paved the way for promising prospects. new strategies to fight anemia, cancer and many other diseases".

All scientists have played a fundamental role in discovery, each starting from their particular interests. For example, Semenza was dedicated to the study of erythropoietin hormone genes (EPO) and how this is regulated by the variation of oxygen. They worked with mice, through their genetic modification and they discovered specific fragments of DNA that seemed to mediate the response to hypoxia (low levels of oxygen). For its part, in a subsequent study, Ratcliffe studied genes that regulated oxygen dependence. In both areas, the teams of both researchers concluded that the mechanisms responsible for oxygen identification are present in all tissues.

Kaelin, Semenza and Ratcliffe have identified the molecular machinery that regulates the genetic activity that allows cells to self-regulate based on available oxygen.

For its part, Kaelin, Jr., which is a reference in the treatment of cancer, contributed to this research almost by chance. I was studying the disease of von Hippel-Lindau (VHL disease), a hereditary syndrome characterized by the development of tumors in different places. This is how he noticed that cancer cells lacking a certain gene linked to this disease express abnormally high levels of hypoxia-regulating genes, while those with VHL gene restore normal levels. This new line of research has revealed that the genes responsible for VHL interact with the HIF protein complex.

Thanks to these conclusions, we can not only know that cells adapt their metabolism when oxygen is scarcebut also the impact of this function on the immune system and many other physiological functions.

This discovery represents a breakthrough for the development of cancer treatmentsbecause in tumors, this machinery that regulates oxygen is used to stimulate the formation of blood vessels and reshape the metabolism for the effective proliferation of cancer cells. In this way, this knowledge would interfere in the different stages of the disease.

It can also be of great help for the study and treatment of various diseases such as chronic renal failure or suffering patients severe anemia product of the decrease of hormone erythropoietin (EPO).