US scientists, led by Indian, make big discovery that'll help brain cancer patients

In a finding that can change the way how cancerous brain tumours are treated, a team of scientists led by an Indian, has found that cancerous cells link with healthy brain cells to become hyperactive. This in turn causes speedy cognitive loss and death in patients. The team of scientists from San Francisco Medical Centrewas led by Saritha Krishna.

The team has also found out that a commonly usedanti-seizure drugwas effective in reducing hyperactivity of the tumour cells and even stopping their growth.

Press Trust of India reported that the study was published in latest issue of journal Nature.

These scientists have reportedly found out that the link up and communication between healthy brain cells and cancerous cells could be manipulated to slow downwhich can in turn, slow down or even halt growth of the tumour.

The study reportedly noted that these findings will be more beneficial for patients with glioblastoma. It is considered to be most fatal among adult brain cancers.

The study conducted by Krishna and fellow scientist Shawn Hervey-Jumper discovered a previously unknown mechanism by which brain tumours hijack and modify brain circuitry to cause a decline in cognitive activities in glioblastoma patients while recording the brain activity in patients undergoing awake-brain tumour surgery.

Krishna is a native of Thiruvananthapuram in southern Indian state of Kerala. She is the lead author of the paper. Krishna told PTI that when patients were given language tasks during awake brain surgery, in addition to the commonly known language areas of the brain, the scientists found activation in tumour-infiltrated brain regions. These regions were remote and farther away from language brain zones.

This unexpected finding showed that the deadly cancer cells can hijack and restructure connections in surrounding brain tissue to make them hyperactive, speeding up cognitive decline and shortening the survival period among patients.

Scientists were thus forced to carry out extensive biological characterisation of the connected tumour cells using brain organoids.

Brain organoids are small bundles of neurons derived from human stem cells and mouse models engrafted with human glioblastoma cells.

"These experiments revealed a key role of a protein called 'thrombospondin-1' in this neuronal hyperexcitability and that the drug, gabapentin, a commonly used anti-seizure medication, successfully reduced neuronal hyperexcitability and halted further tumour growth," the study quoted.

"Besides this known anti-seizure activity, this study discovering the anti-tumour effect of gabapentin using mouse models highlights the potential of repurposing this existing drug to target tumour growth, thereby expediting therapeutic drug development for patients with malignant glioma," Saritha said as quoted by the PTI.

"Non-invasive brain modulation techniques traditionally applied to modulate neuronal function in epilepsy and psychiatric diseases, could now be exploited in clinical trials and tested in patients with brain cancer to suppress glioma’s activity," she said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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