The risk of cancer is reduced by half in patients with ... - ABC.es

CNIO researchers identified nearly a hundred genes that would explain this strange protection for patients with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or schizophrenia

The Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia and Parkinson’s are the reflection of a diseased brain. But the three neurological diseases share a lesser-known property: ability to protect victims against cancer . This protective factor is sensed for years in the consultations of neurologists and psychiatrists. Now suspicion was confirmed with analysis biocomputacionales that have revealed for the first time, the genetic relationship between cancer and diseases of the nervous system.

The analysis, conducted by group of Alfonso Valencia National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), has identified nearly a hundred genes which explain the strange relationship between seemingly different diseases.

Confirm this genetic protection now opens a new avenue for treating both neurological and oncological diseases. A formula would be to test psychiatric drugs against cancer tumors and brain diseases. The details are published in the journal “PLoS Genetics”.

Dats class=”ladillo”>

The discovery was made after crossing the gene expression data from nearly 1,700 individuals from more than 30 studies on diseases of the central nervous system (Alzheimer , Parkinson and schizophrenia) and three types of cancer (colon, lung and prostate) but not excluding the other pathologies of the nervous system and other tumors. “It stands to reason that if there is an obvious correlation in these diseases we have studied the same thing happen in other neurological diseases and other tumors. We could say that in these psychiatric or neurological patients decreases the overall risk of cancer by 30 to 50 percent , “explains Valencia, deputy director of Basic Research CNIO.

risk behavior

In patients with Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia risk is reduced by half, with habits that favor the development of tumors. That’s the case of people with schizophrenia who have a high rate of addiction to snuff a clear risk factor for both lung cancer and other tumors.

the almost one hundred of genes identified to explain the link between cancer and diseased brain, 74 simultaneously exhibit lower activity in central nervous system diseases and increased in cancer. By contrast, 19 genes showed a higher activity in reduced disease to cancer diseases and central nervous system. The latter would explain the protection.

Among the identified genes appear related years with Alzheimer’s and cancer and related biological processes important to life as the oldest known metabolism or cell communication with the outside environment.

Antidepressants?

against tumors

Now the next step is to cross psychiatric drugs for cancer and vice versa. One candidate could be the bexarotene , an agent used against tumors has shown beneficial effects in the treatment of Alzheimer’s mouse experiments.

The deputy director of class=”p”>

The study had the collaboration of the psychiatrist-Seisdedos Tabarés Rafael, University of Valencia and the Center for Biomedical Research in Mental Health (CIBERSAM) and computational biologist Anaïs Baudot, the CNRS Marseille, France.