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New molecules have been discovered to help the body cope with high doses of chemotherapy drugs
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
American specialists have discovered molecules that interact with intestinal stem cells and help the body survive very high doses of chemotherapy and radiation.
In the treatment of cancerous tumors, the dose of chemotherapy is of primary importance; sometimes, a lethal dose is required to kill cancer cells. According to experts, a person has a chance of a favorable outcome if the gastrointestinal system functions without disturbances and is not involved in the cancer process.
A laboratory at the University of Michigan has recently discovered biological mechanisms that help protect the digestive tract from excessive doses of chemotherapy drugs. The first experiments were conducted on laboratory mice, but experts believe that the data obtained will soon make a real breakthrough in the treatment of cancer, especially at later stages. Researchers have identified proteins that bind to molecules of a certain type (found on the surface of intestinal stem cells). When interacting with molecules, the proteins activate the process of regeneration of the gastrointestinal tract.
In various tissues of our body there is always a pool of stem cells, which under adverse effects produce new cells that are necessary for the restoration of damaged organs and tissues. But the number of stem cells is insufficient in the case of very severe destruction, the cells are simply unable to restore organs after high doses of chemotherapy or radiation, which are used in the late stages of cancer. At this point, it is extremely important to protect the stem cells in the gastrointestinal tract to help the intestine cope with its main function - removing toxins from the body.
Experts have found substances that will help a person withstand extremely high doses of chemotherapy and radiation, until the cancer cells in the body are completely destroyed. In their experiment, scientists used mice that were injected with new molecules and as a result, about 50-75 mice survived even with lethal doses of chemotherapy. The mice that were not injected with the molecules, all of them died after the chemotherapy.
With good bowel function, the patient has a better chance of survival. But the researchers said they will now make every attempt to achieve 100% survival of mice with high doses of chemotherapy drugs. The laboratory has been studying the molecules Slit2 and R-spondin for over 10 years. As studies have shown, these molecules actively participate together with stem cells in the restoration of the intestine. Scientists are confident that all this will help in the future in the treatment of cancer tumors at late stages with multiple metastases. The head of the study believes that if their assumption is correct, then in the future people will not die from cancer, although confirmation of data on the human body has not yet been carried out.
Any malignant tumor in any organ can be destroyed with large doses of chemotherapy or radiation. But now the problem in treating advanced forms of cancer is that there is a possibility of the patient dying before the cancer cells are destroyed. Perhaps scientists will be able to find a way to solve this problem and in the future there will be one less fatal disease.
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