Dr. José Ángel Martínez-Climent, researcher of research center Applied Medicine (CIMA) of the University of Navarra, has obtained a project of research from the Lymphoma Research Foundation (LRF) to study new treatments for mantle lymphoma (MCL). He will collaborate in the research with Dr. Izidore Lossos, from the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Miami, and Dr. Martín Fernández-Zapico, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

The team will focus on the study of the cyclin D1 protein and its role in the treatment of this disease: "We will join forces between Miami, Rochester and Pamplona, with the goal to continue our research on the role of cyclin D1 as a therapeutic target in mantle lymphoma," says researcher.

The final goal is to transfer the experimental results to patients with this pathology. In this work collaborate Elena Beltrán, Vicente Fresquet, Javier Martínez-Useros and Melissa Rieger, from the laboratory of Molecular Oncology of CIMA.

Despite being a rare lymphoma subject , the team is interested in working with MCL, because "it remains an incurable disease. Moreover, it is caused by a mutation of cyclin D1, an important protein that is also involved in the development of other more common tumors, such as lung, breast, esophageal, liver and pancreatic cancer," explains Martínez-Climent.

One of the objectives of the research is to use an experimental mouse model they have generated, which develops lymphomas similar to human MCL. "In this model we can activate and deactivate cyclin D1, which allows us to determine the therapeutic effects of inhibiting this protein in combination with other treatments," explains Dr. Martínez-Climent.

data Previous studies indicate that cyclin D1 inhibition does not eliminate lymphoma cells, but enhances the action of other drugs. For example, the combination of cyclin D1 inhibitor drugs with cell death inducers show a "potent synergistic effect" that causes regression in lymphomas, they say. "These results suggest a new avenue to treat MCL effectively," they conclude.