It seems that the big C is getting clearer these days. With the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's research, gastric cancer will be better understood.
With the help of neutron analysis, researchers from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) saw a key finding that can give a light on gastric cancer research. According to Science Daily, ORNL just discovered a key enzyme on Helicobacter pylori , a bacterium known to cause gastric cancer. This enzyme is the H. pylori 5'-methylthioadenosine nucleosidase, or HpMTAN.
Headed by Donald Ronning, the team who studied the HpMTAN found out that the H. pylori uses a unique biosynthetic pathway to synthesize vitamin K2, a vitamin which catalyzes the HpMTAN's interaction with other macromolecules which also leads to several stomach issues. With this key finding, it leads to hopes of finding a cure which can attack this certain enzyme.
In an interview with Physics, Andrey Kovalevsky, one of the members of the HpMTAN research team and coauthor of the said research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shared that there were previous studies on curing gastric problems such as the gastric cancer with the use of drugs like antibiotics. However, it was found out that most of these drugs not only eliminate harmful bacteria like the H. pylori but even the good ones which is also harmful in the long run.
Kovalevsky further added that with the research on HpMTAN, it will help in developing medicines which can fine-tune and only recognize the target without compromising the good bacteria living in the digestive system of the human body.
In another article, Ronning imparted that the creation of a new drug on gastric problems can take several years, so does researches on enzyme's behavior like what they did for the HpMTAN. However, he also said that since their team just had a published research about the said enzyme, it already expedited the process in a way.
