- Human Cell Atlas Will Be ‘Google Maps’ for Health Research
- U.S. Postpartum Depression Diagnoses Doubled in a Decade
- California Child Tests Positive for Bird Flu
- About 1 in 10 U.S. Adults Have High Cholesterol
- Four Million Americans Could Lose Health Coverage Once ACA Credits Expire
- Child-Teacher Bond in Early Education Could Have Lasting Impact
- Surgeon General Says U.S. Smoking Rates Have Tumbled, But Not for Everyone
- Earlier Type 2 Diabetes Diagnoses Bring Higher Odds for Dementia
- A-fib Plus Heart Failure a Dangerous Combo
- Psychologists’ Group Issues First Guidance to Parents on Teen Online Video Use
Scientists ‘Silence’ Aggressive Brain Cancer Gene in Mice
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 30An experimental drug switched off a gene linked to an aggressive and incurable type of brain cancer and extended the lives of mice.
The brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme, kills about 13,000 Americans a year and is the form of the disease that caused Sen. Edward Kennedy’s death in 2009.
The drug used in the study is based on nanotechnology and is small enough to cross the blood-brain barrier to get to brain tumors. It targets and turns off a specific cancer-causing gene in cells. Silencing the gene eliminates proteins that prevent cancer cells from dying.
The mice received the drug via intravenous injection, and lived nearly 20 percent longer and their tumors were three to four times smaller, according to the study, which was published Oct. 30 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
“This is a beautiful marriage of a new technology with the genes of a terrible disease,” study senior co-author and nanomedicine expert Chad Mirkin, a professor of chemistry; medicine; chemical and biological engineering; biomedical engineering; and materials science and engineering at Northwestern University, said in a university news release.
Added study senior co-author Alexander Stegh: “Glioblastoma is a very challenging cancer, and most chemo-therapeutic drugs fail in the clinic.”
“The beauty of the gene we silenced in this study is that it plays many different roles in therapy resistance,” said Stegh, an assistant professor in the neurology department at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and an investigator at the Northwestern Brain Tumor Institute. “Taking the gene out of the picture should allow conventional therapies to be more effective.”
The next step is to test the drug in clinical trials. Experts note that results achieved in animal studies often don’t translate to humans.
About 16,000 new cases of glioblastoma multiforme are diagnosed in the United States each year. The average survival is 14 to 16 months.
More information
The American Brain Tumor Association has more about glioblastoma tumors.
Source: HealthDay
Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Related
-
-120x134.jpg)
More Hot Flashes Could Mean Higher Odds for Type 2 DiabetesMenopausal women with frequent hot flashes and night sweats...
- November 4, 2024
-
Late-Life Menopause Linked to Higher Asthma RiskWomen who enter menopause at a later age have...
- October 30, 2024
-
Biden Proposes That Insurers Cover Over-the-Counter Birth ControlHealth insurers would be required to cover the cost...
- October 21, 2024
-
Some IUDs May Raise The Odds for Breast Cancer, But Overall Risk Remains LowIntrauterine devices (IUDs) may raise the chances of a...
- October 18, 2024
-200x224.jpg)
