Israeli scientists have achieved the disappearance of brain tumors in laboratory mice when they discovered the source of their energy. Work on drugs for people will begin soon.
In a study conducted by experts from Tel Aviv University, laboratory mice were rid of glioblastoma, the most deadly brain tumor. This happened after scientists were able to identify and destroy the so-called cancer energy source. And now the authors of this study are working on finding drugs that can reproduce this effect in humans. They want to find existing drugs in order to repurpose them – after all, this is a much faster process than creating some components from scratch and then testing them for years.
The method of treatment is simply to starve glioblastoma tumors, depriving them of energy. Usually doctors try to influence tumors directly, for example, through chemotherapy. The new technique is to search for sources of exposure in the environment of the tumor, which can harm it.
Astrocytes are brain cells that look like stars, and hence their name. Glioblastoma tumors transfer the surrounding astrocytes to an unusually active state. Using a genetic modification that made it possible to grow mice with glioblastomas, the scientists were able to remove all the astrocytes around the tumors. When this was done, the malignant neoplasms simply disappeared. But even when they stopped suppressing astrocytes, approximately 85% of mice remained in remission, and in the control group, all rodents, without exception, died.
