New Noninvasive Treatment Shows Promise for Deadly Brain Cancer
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, working with scientists at Northwestern University, have created a noninvasive way to treat one of the most aggressive and deadly forms of brain cancer. Their method uses carefully designed nanostructures made from extremely small materials that can carry powerful cancer-fighting compounds into the brain through simple nasal drops. In studies with mice, this approach successfully treated glioblastoma by boosting the brain’s immune system. This technique is less invasive than similar treatments currently being developed.
The findings were published this month in PNAS.
Why Glioblastoma Is So Arduous to Treat
Glioblastoma develops from astrocytes, a type of brain cell, and is the most common malignant brain tumor, affecting about three in every 100,000 people in the U.S.The disease grows quickly and is almost always fatal. one of the biggest challenges in treating it is indeed getting effective medicine into the brain.
“We wanted to change this and develop a noninvasive treatment that activates the immune response to attack glioblastoma,” said Alexander H. Stegh,PhD,a professor and vice chair of research in the WashU Medicine Taylor Family Department of Neurosurgery and a co-corresponding author of the study. Stegh also serves as research director of the Brain Tumor Center at Siteman Cancer Center, based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and WashU Medicine.”With this research, we’ve shown that precisely engineered nanostructures, called spherical nucleic acids, can safely and effectively activate powerful immune pathways within the brain. This changes how cancer immunotherapy can be achieved in tumors that are hard to reach.”
Reactivating the Immune System With STING Pathway Nanomedicine
Glioblastoma is often called a “cold tumor” because it doesn’t naturally cause a strong immune response. Unlike “hot tumors,” which respond better to immunotherapies, glioblastoma tends to avoid detection. Scientists have been trying to stimulate a pathway known as STING, which stands for stimulator of interferon genes. This pathway activates when cells detect foreign DNA, starting immune defenses.
previous research showed that drugs activating the STING pathway can prepare the immune system to attack glioblastoma. however, these drugs break down quickly and must be injected directly into the tumor to work. As multiple doses are needed, this requires invasive procedures.
“We really wanted to minimize how much patients have to go through when they are already sick, and I thought we could use the spherical nucleic acid platforms to deliver these drugs in a noninvasive way,” said Akanksha Mahajan, PhD, a postdoctoral res
Related reading