Researchers at Brown University, in collaboration with an MIT research team, discovered a method of penetrating the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in mice and delivering medication to treat lethal tumors that are the cause of aggressive brain cancers. The study was published online in advance of the December issue of the Journal of Controlled Release.
According to a recent article featured in News Medical Life Science, the researchers were faced with a difficult task. They had to find a way to get larger amounts of drugs through the BBB and into the brain in order to effectively treat brain tumors.
Sean Lawler, an associate pathology professor at Brown University, explained that in addition to enabling a drug to enter the brain, the researchers would have to deliver the drug to mice models in such high concentration that it could kill tumor cells.
About Brain Malignancies
Brain malignancies are the most difficult type of cancer to treat. They are also the most lethal. Glioblastoma, a highly aggressive cancer, is the most common. Patients usually survive about fifteen months after being diagnosed with the disease. Professor Lawler noted that over the last twenty years, there has not been significant progress in improving overall survival.
About the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB)
The BBB is composed of tissue and blood vessels that together protect harmful substances from entering the brain. That unfortunately includes anti-cancer drugs.
Drugs that have been effective in treating other cancers have had little impact on brain cancers due to the BBB.
The New Approach
A preclinical trial using mice with brain tumors tested a drug with a peptide against a drug with macrocyclic barrier-penetrating peptide (M13). The peptide is able to penetrate tissues as well as cross membranes
After conducting additional experiments to analyze drugs that could kill tumor cells without harming the mouse models, the team followed up with a treatment study.
In presenting an overview, Professor Lawler said that the peptide they used was able to move through the BBB and last longer within the body. The researchers hooked the peptide to one of the cancer drugs and tested it in glioblastoma mouse models. He referred to this as a significant step forward.
On a positive note, results of the study found that cell death associated with peptide M13 did not occur in healthy areas of the brain but mostly in tumor cells. The rate of overall survival in the mice who were treated with the M13 increased by fifty percent.
Professor Lawler commented that the researchers believe this finding brings a new approach to the treatment of people with lethal brain cancers. Researchers have produced a system that can deliver cancer drugs to the brain and extend survival.
