Evaluation of the therapeutic potential of recombinant proteins derived from Bothrops jararaca venom glands for the strains head and neck tumor cells treatment

• Grant number: 18/09881-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2018
• End date: October 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biochemistry - Molecular Biology
• Principal Investigator: Matias Eliseo Melendez
• Grantee: Lucas Scaccia Biffi
• Host Institution: Hospital do Câncer de Barretos. Fundação Pio XII (FP). Barretos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The cancer is currently characterized by being a chronic disease with high mortality and morbidity. The head and neck cancer is the sixth most often in Brazil and in the world. Although there has been many researches in the area of oncology, there is still a great need of new researches, which aim prevention, early diagnosis methods and new therapeutic measures to ensure better quality of living and to improve patient rates survival. Based on the statistics, this project is searching the development of a new interventional propose to the struggle against the head and neck neoplasms, using proteins derived from Bothrops jararaca to attempt inducing tumor cells to apoptosis. The goals approach will be: (I) analyzing the B. jararaca venom glands transcriptome, (II) cloning the selected genes into expression vectors, and (III) analyzing the effect on cell viability of using strains derived from head and neck tumors. It is expected that the tumor cells reduce their cellular capacity after application of the selected proteins. (AU)