Guanajuato, Gto., January 8, 2017.- According the Department of Health, in Mexico, every year there are six-thousand deaths for breast cancer, which creates a serious problem of public health. Hence, a group of researchers from the University of Guanajuato (UG) works in a project that seeks to improve the efficiency of the available treatments for this illness.

Dr. Claudia Leticia Mendoza Macías, explained that during the therapies against cancer, there is a resistance phenomenon that causes the cancer cells to defend and the treatment doesn't work.

"What we seek is to find molecules that can revert this resistance, that the carcinogenic cells return to be sensitive to the treatment", she detailed.

Dr. Rogelio Solorio, from the Department of Chemistry; Dr. Clara Alba Betancourt, from the Department of Pharmacy, Dr. Martha Alicia Deveze, and from the Department of Biology, Dr. Felipe Padilla participate in the project as well as major and postgraduate students.

Researchers try to design molecules that have a potential use to improve the treatment for neoplasia (abnormal mass of tissue), to optimize the antineoplastic therapy, "the treatments that lost their effectivity would work again", explained Dr. Mendoza.

In addition, it would be more selective, it means, the treatment would be aimed to the malignant cells, without affecting the healthy ones.

The project has been developed for two years, in the first stage they worked in a non-pathogen bacteria model to evaluate the resistance, and we are currently "working to see the effect of these molecules that have been designed, but now in pathogenic molecules to seek their possible use in other phenomena of resistance that also impact the public health, such as infections".

It means, in this stage they want to know if the molecules they designed have the capacity to revert the resistance in pathogen bacteria and therefore, be used as antibiotics or as molecules that accompany the antibiotics to improve its activity.

The project is being developed in the Laboratory of Clinical and Molecular Diagnosis, and in addition of its application in the medical field, the students who collaborate in the research, have another work opportunity, and allows them to realize what is the application of science, mentioned Dr. Mendoza Macías.