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Science talk(ie)s: isotopes identify cancers - an interview with professor Piotr Paneth



Professor Paneth is an internationally renowned expert on isotope effects. The scientist conducts ground-breaking research on their wide application in many different areas from authentication of food products to medicine. Today, results of isotope applications in  liver cancer diagnosis are eagerly anticipated. 'By investigating isotopes, we will be able to determine the stage of the disease and its  prognosis. That's what doctors and patients have been waiting for', the scientist explains.

 

You have been doing research on applications of isotope effects to diagnosis of liver cancer in children. How did you become interested in the topic?

This is a novel project that Lodz University of Technology has been carrying out together with Medical University of Lodz. It was conceived of in response to the difficulties that paediatric histopathologists encountered in morphological analysis of cancerous tissue.  We found out that they had a problem telling two types of liver cancer in children apart. We decided to help them and to try to identify them by using isotopic fractionation which results from isotope effect. In the case of this disease, with the tools that are available today, medical analytics fails to distinguish between the type of tumour that would require immediate medical intervention and the type that should not be 'teased' with too aggressive treatment.

Previous research has shown that changes in metabolism should leave some isotopic trace, alter the course of chemical reactions, their mechanisms, and thus modify the very isotope effects. Changes in isotopic composition that result from isotope effects should be different. Should the tumours be a different type of cancer, there is a chance that the isotopic composition of the tissue will vary. It seems after two years of research that we may be optimistic about the future because we have indeed been observing variations in the tissue, which would not be possible with the currently available diagnostic techniques.

 

How is this a ground-breaking method?

Just a month ago, our paper on this topic was published in Oncotarget journal. Almost concurrently, researchers from Nantes published the results of similar research they conducted on breast cancer. Their outcomes converge with ours.  These two are pioneering research projects as they examined tissue. Similar research previously conducted used blood plasma and yielded indirect results which were not reliable. But even in the case of the latter, few results have been published. Our team, just like the French team, have investigated newly formed tissue which allowed for direct results. We managed to correlate the variation in isotopic composition of nitrogen with the disease stage. We are hopeful, therefore, that we will be able to determine the stage of the disease and its prognosis by examining isotopes.  

 

In what other ways can isotope effects help in treatment of medical conditions?

Isotope effects have been widely applied in medicine. One of the special areas of their application is research on counteracting the HIV virus that has been conducted at Lodz University of Technology. We do fundamental research the objective of which is to find inhibitors that would prevent the virus from spreading by  blocking one of the enzymes that are crucial for its development. We have been trying to synthesize compounds which are good candidates for drugs exactly because they would block the activity of this enzyme. We use isotope effects to discover the mechanism of the interaction between such compounds and the enzyme. On this basis, we try to synthesize even better compounds that would make effective drugs. I need to emphasize that developing new drugs is very tricky because the virus never stops mutating. Developing inhibitors is time-consuming and it is not infrequent that a compound that seemed like a good solution is no longer relevant after all the tests have been completed due to the evolution of the virus. Hard work is not enough. You also need a stroke of luck.

Another challenge is to develop a drug that will not be toxic to the body. That the drug will halt the development of the disease needs to be equally important as the control of side effects. 

 

What do you expect to find out with this research?

We want to find out how our inhibitor - a potential drug, should everything go well - binds to the enzyme, the site of the binding, and how it could be improved further. Molecular modelling and isotope effects help us do that. That are no compounds, and therefore no medicines, that are not harmful. The point is to produce a molecule a small concentration of which will be effective and will involve few side effects. We want it to bind to the enzyme in such a way that it would not have to be taken in large doses.

 

How long have you been working on this project?

This research has been carried out with a MAESTRO grant. In April 2017, it will have been five years since we started. We wish to extend it by half a year in order to achieve results that would be more satisfactory for us. As I mentioned before, designing new drugs is a very tricky field. In the laboratory setting , we have been working on the enzyme that is crucial for the development of the HIV virus, but in its natural environment, the virus is constantly mutating and changing its structure. Before you announce the results of your research, you need to be sure that the compound that works on an isolated enzyme, will be equally effective in the enzyme's natural environment. So far, we have experienced some difficulty trying to find a national laboratory for joint research. Recently, we have started cooperation with the university in Ghent, Belgium. That is where we have sent our primary samples for testing.

 

Who makes up the research team that works on the HIV virus?

The project that has been carried out at Lodz University of Technology originated from the cooperation with professor Vincent Moliner from Spain. He identified the three basic enzymes to be investigated in relation to the HIV virus, whereas I was the one to propose the method which is to use equilibrium isotope effects. We started working on triazole compounds which have been investigated by my colleague from the Medical University of Lublin. Altogether, ten researchers have been involved in this project, three of them are not affiliated with TUL.

 

In what other ways can isotope effects be used?

The variations in properties of isotopes that we have been talking about are used in basic research such as kinetics to facilitate our understanding of mechanisms of chemical and biochemical reactions. Apart from pharmacy and medicine, they are also exploited in fields such as environment protection, authentication of products - mainly, food products - and in forensic science.

 

It is worth being a scientist because ....

.... because it's not a job but a passion, an urge, natural curiosity which enable you to create new worth.

 

 

The professor works at the Institute of Applied Radiation Chemistry, the Faculty of Chemistry, Lodz University of Technology.

 

 

 


Date of record:2016-11-30
Date of actualization:
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Submitted by:
Anna Boczkowska
Photos
Piotr Paneth - Nauka Movie

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