{"id":23725,"date":"2018-09-01T13:00:50","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T19:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/?p=23725"},"modified":"2018-08-31T17:01:08","modified_gmt":"2018-08-31T23:01:08","slug":"is-there-a-relationship-between-environmental-pollution-and-breast-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/is-there-a-relationship-between-environmental-pollution-and-breast-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Is there a relationship between environmental pollution and breast cancer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"At the Center for Atmospheric Sciences (CCA) and at the Institute of Biomedical Research (IIB) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), a team of specialists will determine \u2014through the use of animal models\u2014 the effect of pollutants on the immune system and its relationship with breast cancer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The pollutants under analysis are known as endocrine disruptors or hormonal disrupters<\/strong>, some examples are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), phthalates and bisphenols (BPA), which are chemicals that represent risk factors associated with the development of tumors, especially in the reproductive system.<\/p>\n

Dr. Karen Nava Castro, CCA IIB researcher and collaborator of this project led by Dr. Jorge Morales Montor, explained to the CONACYT Information Agency the damages caused by these compounds in human health.<\/p>\n

An animal model to confirm suspicions<\/h3>\n

This line of research emerged when Dr. Morales Montor, researcher at the IIB, studied the hormonal regulation of parasitic infections; later the work evolved to obtain new aspects<\/strong>. One of these new approaches to the researcher’s initial work was to determine the effect of the hormones on the immune system, a research carried out by Dr. Nava Castro.<\/p>\n

“If you want to study the immune system, you have to do it in a condition where the system is activated, be it in a parasitic, viral infection or in a cancer model — where you have an immune response that is attacking a tumor<\/em><\/strong>,” Nava Castro explained.<\/p>\n

This is how they began to work with murine breast tumor model, by injecting newborn mice with a dose of BPA or phthalate. After applying the dose, the rodents are allowed to grow until adulthood, where once they reach sexual maturity are injected into the breast with the cell line 4T1 for the tumor to develop.<\/p>\n

Harmful chemicals<\/h3>\n

According to the specialist, endocrine disruptors are present in virtually all the inputs we use<\/strong>, such as creams, perfumes, deodorants or hermetic food containers, but they are also emitted into the atmosphere during daily human activities.<\/p>\n

The researchers are particularly interested in phthalates and PAH, because they are compounds that we breathe every day as suspended particles<\/strong>. Phthalates are used as plasticizers, while PAHs are generated by the incomplete combustion of coal, oil, gas, wood, garbage and other organic substances such as tobacco smoke.<\/p>\n

As an example, smoking a cigar produces an intake of twenty to forty nanograms of benzopyrene, a potentially carcinogenic PAH and which exposure in humans is associated with cancer of the lung<\/strong>, bladder, esophagus, lip, mouth, pharynx, melanoma and lymphatic system.<\/p>\n

“These particles are in the environment, we are exposed all the time and we breathe them, we eat them and we also unconsciously anoint ourselves with these contaminants<\/em>,” she explained.<\/p>\n

How are they associated with breast cancer?<\/h3>\n

According to the specialist, the genetic load is an important factor for people to develop breast cancer; however, this condition can also be modulated by exposure to pollutants<\/strong>, especially in large cities.<\/p>\n

“In large cities there are other factors such as stress that, in addition to contaminants, makes the population more vulnerable to developing diseases such as the different types of cancer we know<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

The immune system<\/strong> \u2014which is responsible for defending the organism from bacteria and viruses\u2014 also controls the growth of tumor cells, which are also regulated by hormones<\/strong>. For this reason, the specialist highlighted the interaction between these pollutants and the endocrine system, since they structurally adhere to the body’s hormonal receptors and impact the immune response, which is associated with the development of granulomas.<\/p>\n

“All these compounds are present in the atmosphere and structurally are similar to hormones, have all the ability to stick to hormone receptors and, therefore, would potentially modulate the immune response<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

In search of more explanations<\/h3>\n

Karen Nava Castro explained that the tumors of mice that exposed both BPA and phthalate are larger and apparently have greater metastasis to the lung \u2014which is one of the target tissues of metastasis in breast cancer\u2014 than mice that did not receive no treatment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The researchers\u2019 hypothesis is that the compound somehow alters the functioning of the cells of the immune system from the moment of application<\/strong>. So when they are adults, these defense mechanisms work differently. The idea is that this observed reaction could be similar in humans when exposed to these compounds.<\/p>\n

Now the UNAM specialist is studying the mechanisms by which these compounds alter the immune response not only in the in vivo model, and the next step of this research is to explain why the tumors are larger.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition, the researcher pointed out that as the impact of these chemical compounds is on the immune system, it can also impact in the development or complication of any disease<\/strong>, but they have just focused on the aspect of breast cancer.<\/p>\n

“There is still little research done in this area in Mexico; however, it is necessary to open more areas of study to other areas of contamination in Mexico, such as water or land, to know the existing risk and put on the table solutions that can be applied efficiently<\/em>. ”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: <\/strong>Agencia Informativa CONACYT<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the Center for Atmospheric Sciences (CCA) and at the Institute of Biomedical Research (IIB) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), a team of specialists will determine \u2014through the use of animal models\u2014 the effect of pollutants on the immune system and its relationship with breast cancer. The pollutants under analysis are known …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":23738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-23725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualidad-en-la-salud","tag-casalud","cat-3-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23725"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23739,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23725\/revisions\/23739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}