The study, published in the journal Americal Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, has been carried out by research teams led by the Ramon Farré, head of the IDIABPS research team on Respiratory biophysics and bioengineering, lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and researcher at the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (IN2UB) of the UB; and Josep M. Montserrat, pulmonologist at Hospital Clínic, head of the IDIBAPS research group on Sleep-related breathing disorders and lecturer from the same Faculty. Both teams are also linked to the Respiratory Diseases Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBERES).
The younger, the more vulnerable to cancer’s aggressiveness
The obstructive sleep apnea Syndrome is a chronic disease which affects about the 10 % of adult population worldwide. During these last years, researchers have shown interest in the study of the potential relation between the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and its immediate consequence, intermittent hypoxia, with the appearance of tumors. The new study, led by Isaac Almendros, researcher at IDIBAPS and lecturer from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences – UB, represents a scientific advance within the research line of potential effects of obstructive sleep apnea in cancer. In this field, the research team was pioneer in the contribution of the first evidence of the role of intermittent hypoxia in cancer development.
This new study has been conducted on young mice –equivalent ages to those in teenagers- and old mice –corresponding to people aged over 65- and shows how the lack of oxygen during sleep (hypoxia) speeds up tumour growth in the youngest ones only.
The research team has related these results to a differential immune response to intermittent hypoxia in tumor-associated macrophages and regulator lymphocytes. According to Almendros, “we should consider the importance of the research conducted on animals aged equally to patients with respiratory chronic diseases, such as obstructive sleep apnea”. “Our challenge –adds the expert- is to identify and prove sleep apnea’s physiopathological consequences and contribute to the development of personalized medicine to work on its comprehensive handling”.
Other participants in this new study are the experts from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), La Fe University and Technical Hospital (Valencia), Hospital Virgen de Valme (Seville) and the University of Chicago (United States), among other institutions.
Article reference:
Torres, N. Campillo, P. N. Nonaka, J. M. Montserrat, D. Gozal, M. A. Martínez-García, F. Campos-Rodríguez, D. Navajas, R. Farré, I. Almendros. «Aging reduces intermittent hypoxia-induced lung carcinoma growth in a mouse model of sleep apnea». American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 17 de juliol de 2018.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201805-0892LE
Information by UB.