In 2006, the epigenetics laboratory of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) published in Nature Genetics the discovery for the first time of the mutation of an epigenetic gene in human cancer. Three years later, he won the eleventh Research Prize of the Dr. Antoni Esteve Foundation for an article in which they described the alteration of the HDAC2 gene, present in 25% of colon, stomach and uterine tumours of a special subtype. The article is signed by Santiago Ropero as first author.
The members of the award jury considered his article, among all the receipts that were eligible for the award, as the best research work in the field of pharmacology published by a Spanish author in an international journal in 2006 and 2007. The prize, which is awarded every two years and is endowed with 18,000 euros, was presented on June 30, 2009 at the headquarters of IDIBELL at the Duran i Reynals Hospital in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat with the presence of its general director, and the director of the Dr. Antoni Esteve Foundation, together with the award-winning authors.
A truncating mutation of HDAC2 in human cancers confers resistance to histone deacetylase inhibition, as the work is titled, describes for the first time the mutation of the HDAC2 gene, which is key in the regulation of many other genes. Its inactivation facilitates the generation of other alterations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. The discovery of these researchers could be very useful in predicting which tumours will be most sensitive to the drugs that will soon be used in cancer chemotherapy, called histone deacetylase inhibitors.
KEYWORDS | Basic pharmacology, cancer, research award