Warangal: Scientist Himavanth Reddy Gatla excels in cancer research

Warangal: Young scientist Dr Himavanth Reddy Gatla of Hanamkonda who is working on immuno-oncology has come across some new findings that HDAC and proteosome inhibitors can inhibit solid tumor growth.

The 32-year-old scientist said that inflammation is a defence mechanism that combats various kinds of infections. Inflammation results in increased recruitment of immune cells to the site of infection, which releases various cytokines to result in the death or neutralization of the pathogen.

The resultant debris is cleaned up, eventually. However, uncontrolled inflammation results in various kinds of diseased situations. For example, in auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, our immune system acts against our own body, resulting in inflammation in the joints.

We mitigate the situation by using immunosuppressants. According to scientists, smoldering inflammation also results in the propagation of cancer. Himavanth Reddy, in his various articles have shown that HDAC inhibitors and proteosome inhibitors work efficiently to kill cancer cells and curtail growth in blood cancers, but not solid tumors such as breast, ovarian, cervical and prostate cancers.

They found one of the reasons to be increased IL-8 (a cytokine produced by immune cells) production by solid tumors, when treated with the above drugs. IL-8 is a pro-inflammatory cytokine which maintains smoldering inflammation, resulting in cancer growth.

Interestingly, when they get rid of IL-8 production by cancer cells, the effectiveness of the above drugs in decreasing the cancer growth in mice is increased. Other mechanisms responsible for such ineffectiveness of the above drugs remain to be unearthed.