Zurich – Biochemist Sabine Werner has discovered remarkable parallels between the healing of skin wounds and the growth of tumors. Now the professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) wants to derive new therapies against cancer from her findings.
Sabine Werner has discovered a cellular growth factor that plays a key role both in wound healing and in the development of tumors. In her previous research, the Professor of Cell Biology at the Department of Biology at ETH Zurich was able to show that a specific cellular growth factor called activin plays a decisive role in controlling wound healing, according to a press release.
In animal experiments on mice, she was able to prove that wounds heal significantly worse when Activin is blocked. However, if the cells produce a lot of activin, they heal faster, but form larger scars if there is too much activin.
In addition, the researcher was able to prove in cell cultures that increased amounts of activin also stimulate tumor growth and that the tumor cells increasingly invade the neighboring tissue. "Many of the same biochemical and cellular processes take place during wound healing and in the development of many types of cancer," says Werner. "In cancer, on the other hand, they get out of control, and malignant tumors use the mechanisms of wound healing to drive their own growth."
The basic researcher now wants to derive possible new therapies from these findings. According to the information provided, it is pursuing the idea of preventing Activin from interacting with its target molecules or activating the biochemical signaling pathways switched on by Activin, particularly in the case of cancer with new drugs to be developed. Such drugs could possibly also prevent the formation of large and unsightly scars. ce/mm