Mathematical algorithms to curb cancer growth

A team of engineers from Tecnunthe School of Engineering of the University of Navarra, has created a new mathematical algorithm that makes it possible to study the metabolism of cancer and locate its vulnerabilities in order to slow down its growth. This has been reported in article published in the journal Nature Communications.

As explained by the main researcher of Tecnun who has led the project, Francisco Planes, the work is materialized in a tool web that allows to identify new ways to slow down the metabolism of tumor cells, preventing their growth and progression. "We are tackling a very complex problem, with thousands of variables, given the flexibility of cell metabolism and the different ways that tumors develop to feed themselves and continue to grow," says Professor Full Professor of Tecnun. However, continues Planes, "our tool demonstrates that metabolic vulnerabilities in tumors can be identified. Blocking these vulnerabilities is lethal to tumor growth, similar to the effect of cutting a major pathway on a highway network ." 

The tool has been validated by the Cimaresearch center average Applied Medicine at the University of Navarra, whose scientists have used it to study the metabolism of multiple myeloma, "the third most common hematological malignancy, with a patient survival rate of approximately 24 months," as Felipe Prósper, co-director of the Hemato-Oncology Program at , points out. As described in the paper, explains Prósper, "the has made it possible to predict the therapeutic potential of inhibiting two proteins (CTPS1 and UAP1) in this disease. The in vitro experiments carried out by our team confirm these findings". Cima tool

In addition, as expressed by the engineer Luis Vitores Valcárcel, first author of the work, which is framed within his doctoral dissertation, "it is a simple and accessible tool for the academic community, with the ability to be applied to any cancer subject and without the need for the intervention of an expert in bioinformatics". 

It should be noted that the Computational Biology Research group of Tecnun, in collaboration with the Hemato-Oncology group of Cima, has been working on the study of cancer metabolism since 2012, thanks to funding obtained from different public and private institutions. The work published in the latest issue of Nature Communications integrates multiple improvements with respect to article that was published in this same journal by the engineering team in 2017. 

According to researcher of Tecnun Francisco Planes, the advances are due, in large part, to the updates that the metabolism map has undergone in recent years, as well as to the establishment of massive sequencing technologies in biomedical research. "Our tool integrates these sources of information and improves the predictive capacity of existing algorithms with new elements at the mathematical and computational level," he concluded.

The work carried out has received public funding from department of Education and Industry of the Basque Government, the Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness and financial aid from private institutions such as association Spanish Against Cancer and the Ramón Areces Foundation. In addition, it has been carried out at framework of the Institute of Health Research of Navarra (IdiSNA) and the CIBERONC (CIBERONC). 

article published in Nature Communications (October 11, 2024)