Israeli researchers believe they can make the deadliest brain cancer less lethal, after growing tumors in mice and using human cells in a laboratory model by preventing specific proteins from reaching it.
Glioblastoma has only a survival rate of 40 percent after one year and 5% after five years, even with surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Prof. However, Ronit Satchi-Fainaro says she is hopeful that her new study, done on mice and laboratory models, will “cure the disease chronically but manageably or even completely.”
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Her team has adapted hundreds of mice to give glioblastoma, which is responsible for half of all primary brain cancers and is considered the most aggressive cancer that starts in the brain.
All the mice had brain tumor growth and died within a few weeks unless they took a chemical compound to block the production of the P-selectin protein. The mice that took the P-selectin blocker all recovered and lived.
Doctor examines MRI scan of brain patient X-ray (utah778 via iStock at Getty Images)
The protein-blocking compound also inhibited the growth of tumor cells taken from human patients and placed them in a 3D model of a human brain in a laboratory, Satchi-Fainaro said.
The study has just been published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications and Satchi-Fainaro said she hopes human trials will be conducted soon and concludes that blocking the P-Selectin protein is a treatment for glioblastoma.
Glioblastoma cancer cells (courtesy of Tel Aviv University)
“We’re talking about one of the most aggressive cancers, which is considered diagnosis four, and it’s really exciting,” she said. “This paves the way for a new therapy for a disease that has had nothing new in the past decade.”
Satchi-Fainaro, director of the Research Center for Cancer Biology at Tel Aviv University and head of the Laboratory for Cancer Research and Nanomedicine, stressed that the blockade of the P-selectin protein does not require new drugs, as blockers have already been developed for the treatment of other conditions. and it has been shown to be safe during ongoing clinical trials.
Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro, Director of the Cancer Biology Research Center and Head of the Cancer Research and Nanomedicine Laboratory at Tel Aviv University (thanks to Tel Aviv University)
Her team, led by PhD student Eilam Yeini and dr. Asaf Madi included, decided to investigate the potential for blocking P-selectin after studying how glioblastoma cells “corrupt” an aspect of the brain’s immune system.
“There are cells in the immune system of the brain called microglia, and they are meant to block pathologies, including cancer,” she said. “We wanted to understand how they are losing their ability to inhibit this cancer, glioblastoma.”
They concluded that the tumor “corrupts and re-educates” the microglia, so they generate the P-selectin protein instead of protecting the brain from cancer, which helps the tumor grow.
‘We asked what happens when we block the secretion of P-selectin proteins that do not normally occur, but which suddenly occur in large quantities in the brain when a tumor occurs.
‘We have found that by blocking the expression of P-selectin, we prevent the microglia from suppressing the immune system and supporting the growth of the tumor in the brain. We were able to test it successfully on mice and on tumor cells in the 3D model, with very encouraging results. ”
