Fibroblasts are responsible for creating and maintaining the extracellular matrix that normally supports all the connective tissues. Tumors have the ability to recruit fibroblasts (Cancer Associated Fibroblasts (CAFs)) that develop a fibrotic microenvironment that supports their growth while protecting them from the immune system. This fibroblast-generated scar tissue is associated with the reduced efficiency of chemotherapies and poor outcome of treatment.

A new publication in Nature Cancer provides evidence that reducing scar tissue with the PXS-5505 small molecule inhibitor can help to treat pancreatic cancer by making it more accessible to chemotherapy treatment. PXS-5505 is an inhibitor of the lysyl oxidase family of enzymes which causes collagen to build up around tumors creating fibrotic scar tissue that acts as a barrier inhibiting the access of chemotherapy agents. The study offers exciting evidence that therapeutic strategies that involve the targeting of tumor-associated stroma can offer several benefits to the treatment of cancer including improved chemotherapy responses, reduced metastatic burden and more importantly prolonged survival.

Read the full article in Nature Cancer 

 

 

 

In response to the current outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Biomedcode has implemented measures to help ensure the health and safety of our employees as well as their families but to also ensure the welfare of the mice under our care as well as the uninterrupted provision of services under the same high standards of quality.

Greece is currently implementing a “Stay At Home” order, intended to minimize the spread of the disease. In this context Biomedcode has adjusted its operation so that personnel that can work from home are doing so, while personnel essential for the proper operation of our animal facilities as well as the execution of contracted research activities, are provided with the necessary documentation to ensure their on-site presence. 

With a long-standing mission to support biomedical research and drug development, Biomedcode is closely monitoring the scientific findings of this pandemic and is open to contributing with its  preclinical mouse models in the global effort to fight this pandemic.

We will continue to take all necessary precautions and we will be happy to address any questions or concerns you may at info@biomedcode.com.

 

 

A recent article published in Science translational Medicine by Spector et al. set out to determine the contribution of fundamental research to the generation of new medicines. By tracking the scientific origins of some of today’s most “transforming” FDA-approved drugs, including medicines such as TNF blockers, ACE inhibitors, kinase inhibitors and others, they find that approximately 80% of the 28 medicines studied, originated as basic research discoveries by scientist seeking to understand a biological process or disease. It is noteworthy, that the path to drug discovery that starts with basic scientific research more often than not includes fundamental research work performed in mouse models of disease that provide invaluable insights and proof of concept on in vivo disease mechanisms and drug activity. One such example of the invaluable contribution of animal disease models in the path to drug discovery, is the human TNF transgenic Tg197 arthritis mouse model that in 1991 provided the first in vivoevidence that deregulated TNF production was causal to chronic polyarthritis (Keffer et al.).