#IDIBELLfellows: Leticia Garrido & Dídac Palau

Blood Phytosterol Concentration and Genetic Variant Associations in Adult Population
Leticia Garrido Sánchez – Pharmacotherapy, pharmacogenetics and pharmaceutical technology group
Phytosterols (campesterol, sitosterol, sitostanol, lanosterol, and stigmasterol) are subject to genetic control, the aim of the study is determine whether Single Nucleotide Variants (SNVs) rs41360247, rs4245791, rs4148217, and rs11887534 of ABCG8, and the r657152 SNV at the ABO blood group locus, are related to plasma phytosterols (PS) concentrations. A second objective was determine variables associated with blood PS concentrations.

Assessment of cachexia in ALK+ non-small cell lung cancer
Dídac Palau Gallinat – Preclinical and experimental research in thoracic tumors (PReTT) group
Cachexia is a devastating syndrome characterized by involuntary weight loss, muscle and adipose tissue wasting and systemic inflammation in the presence of cancer. It affects up to 70% of cancer patients and it is responsible for 20% of cancer-related deaths. Certain cytokines secreted by tumors can drive cancer cachexia by directly targeting the brain, muscle and adipose tissue. This is the case of GDF15, LIF, IL-6 and IL-8. Also, cachexia has been associated with specific genetic backgrounds in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), like loss-of-function mutations in the STK11 gene. We hypothesize that chromosomal rearrangements in the ALK gene, a driver of NSCLC, could be associated with cancer cachexia. Our results show that several cell lines of ALK+ NSCLC secrete cachexia-related cytokines in an ALK-dependent manner. Future experiments will focus on analyzing the ability of these cell lines to induce cachexia in vivo.