{"id":10838,"date":"2025-09-23T13:59:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T12:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/?p=10838"},"modified":"2025-09-23T13:59:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T12:59:32","slug":"when-our-defences-team-up-with-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/en\/when-our-defences-team-up-with-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"When our defences &#8220;team up&#8221; with cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zDVlhfgxPIU?si=MgDJj-fyO-t-k3pL\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tumours have highly sophisticated ways of resisting treatment. Some can <\/span><b>metastasise to other organs and tissues, hide from the immune system and influence other cells in the body<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">even modifying cell behaviour to promote their own growth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The latter is the case of <\/span><b>myeloid cells<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Originating in the bone marrow, they play a key role in defending against microbes but <\/span><b>they<\/b> <b>can switch sides<\/b> <b>when a tumour is present<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; instead of defending us, they hinder the immune response and help the tumour to grow, promoting the formation of blood vessels that feed it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>But how does this switch take place? <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The answer is provided in this edition of <\/span><b><i>News From the Lab<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by <\/span><b>Gabriel Rabinovich<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Senior Group Leader at the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fundacionlacaixa.org\/es\/caixaresearch-institute\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CaixaResearch Institute<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Barcelona and Senior Investigator for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conicet.gov.ar\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CONICET<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><b>Ada Blidner<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a Researcher for CONICET at the Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIn a recent study, published in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/40381622\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">journal <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Immunity<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> we discovered that <\/span><b>myeloid cells bind to a protein that is widespread in the tumour environment, called <\/b><b><i>Galectin-1<\/i><\/b><b>, which alters their function <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and promotes tumour progression\u201d explains Ada.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10831 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IBYME-IMM-BLIDNER-2025-D-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IBYME-IMM-BLIDNER-2025-D-1.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IBYME-IMM-BLIDNER-2025-D-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IBYME-IMM-BLIDNER-2025-D-1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IBYME-IMM-BLIDNER-2025-D-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IBYME-IMM-BLIDNER-2025-D-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Research group of the Glycomedicine Laboratory, IByME, led by Gabriel Rabinovich.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When analysing samples from cancer patients, the researchers found that <\/span><b>Galectin-1 is associated with poorer clinical outcomes and factors that support tumour growth,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> such as suppression of the immune system and the appearance of myeloid cells that adopt a behaviour favourable for tumours. \u201cIn fact, we observed that, <\/span><b>when Galectin-1 is blocked, myeloid cells regain their original function<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d adds Gabriel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, and unexpectedly, they discovered that, in colorectal cancer, the main producers of Galectin-1 are not tumour cells but another type of cell present in the tumour environment: <\/span><b>fibroblasts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u201cBased on these findings, the CaixaResearch Institute, in collaboration with Dr. Pilar Navarro from the Instituto del Mar, realised that <\/span><b>Galectin-1 <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2424051122\"><b>can also activate a gene in fibroblasts<\/b><\/a><b> that promotes tumour growth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d explains Gabriel Rabinovich.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These findings reinforce the potential of <\/span><b>Galectin\u20111 as a possible therapeutic target<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to slow down tumour progression, a line of research <\/span><b>promoted by Gabriel Rabinovich at the CaixaResearch Institute<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Spain&#8217;s first research centre specialised in immunology and one of the first in Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you&#8217;d like to find out more about his work, don&#8217;t miss his first <\/span><b>lecture as Principal Investigator at the CaixaResearch Institute<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a fascinating journey through his scientific career over the past 30 years: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/en\/dr-gabriel-rabinovich-inaugurates-the-caixaresearch-institutes-activities-with-a-lecture-on-immunology-and-new-therapies\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">link<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zDVlhfgxPIU?si=MgDJj-fyO-t-k3pL\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Tumours have highly sophisticated ways of resisting treatment. Some can metastasise to other organs and tissues, hide from the immune system and influence other cells in the body, even modifying cell behaviour to promote their own growth.<\/p>\n<p>The latter is the case of myeloid cells. Originating in the bone marrow, they play a key role in defending against microbes but they can switch sides when a tumour is present; instead of defending us, they hinder the immune response and help the tumour to grow, promoting the formation of blood vessels that feed it.<\/p>\n<p>But how does this switch take place? The answer is provided in this edition of <i>News From the Lab<\/i> by Gabriel Rabinovich,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sin-categorizar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>When our defences &quot;team up&quot; with cancer - Blog CaixaCi\u00e8ncia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.caixaresearch.org\/en\/when-our-defences-team-up-with-cancer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When our defences &quot;team up&quot; with cancer - Blog CaixaCi\u00e8ncia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tumours have highly sophisticated ways of resisting treatment. Some can metastasise to other organs and tissues, hide from the immune system and influence other cells in the body, even modifying cell behaviour to promote their own growth. The latter is the case of myeloid cells. Originating in the bone marrow, they play a key role in defending against microbes but they can switch sides when a tumour is present; instead of defending us, they hinder the immune response and help the tumour to grow, promoting the formation of blood vessels that feed it. But how does this switch take place? 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