The project "Extracellular vesicles and microRNAs as new tools for diagnosis and therapy for bone lesions in multiple myeloma", led by researcher Maria Inês Almeida, from the Microenvironments for New Therapies group, won the 2nd edition of the Multiple Myeloma Research Scholarship. The prize of 15 thousand euros will fund a year's research into the mechanisms of multiple myeloma, with the objective of finding new therapies and diagnostic tools, to increase the quality and survival of these oncological patients.

The development of bone lesions and bone loss are characteristic of multiple myeloma. The bone loss caused by this disease leads to an increase in the number of fractures and a decrease in the quality of life of patients. The team of researchers at the i3S, which includes Susana Santos and Mário Barbosa, intend to halt this process of proliferation of myeloma cells and simultaneously find therapies for these bone lesions to increase the survival of these patients.

To this end, explains Maria Inês Almeida, "we intend to explore the communication between different cell types that exist in the bone, using micro(mi)RNA, which are a class of small molecules that regulate gene expression that do not encode protein and which we know are involved in the onset and progression of multiple myeloma".

In addition, researchers also intend to use micro(mi)RNA as a diagnostic tool, using patient samples to analyze the levels of these molecules in the blood and bone marrow. This work will be developed in collaboration with the oncologist Herlander Marques, from the Hospital de S. Marcos, in Braga, and researcher in Cintesis.

This funding, she adds, "will enable us to develop a line of research that links the study of bone biology to oncology with logic that joins therapy and diagnosis".