Scientists have caused cancer cells to self-destruct in a breakthrough treatment for brain tumors. Illustration: Canva
Euronews reports that researchers have found a way to cause cancer cells to self-destruct under pressure.
And their research has yielded promising results with glioblastoma, one of the most common and deadly types of brain tumors in adults. The disease is forecast to affect around 19.000 people a year in the European Union (EU).
Glioblastoma treatments haven't changed much since the early 2000s, including chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. The median survival time for a patient diagnosed with this disease is 15 months.
"Cancer cells are cells under pressure," said Eric Chevet, head of the cancer research laboratory at the French National Institute of Health and Medicine. They are not normal. They use pressure response mechanisms to their advantage.”
According to him, they have the advantage of being more resistant, stronger and able to move, so they are better able to withstand additional stresses such as chemotherapy.
In the case of glioblastoma, the cells use a protein called IRE1 as part of a stress response mechanism, making them more resistant to cancer drugs. This stage is called “targeting”.
French and Swedish researchers looked at whether interfering with this process could weaken cancer cells. And they just published promising results in the journal iScience.
They proceeded in three steps. First, the team in Sweden worked on computational models. They screened about 15 million molecules, running simulations to predict how they would react to proteins in the body. Z4P was identified as a potentially useful molecule.
The second step is a cell experiment to test the effect of that molecule on cancer cells.
They found that the Z4P molecule not only makes cancer cells less resistant, but also blocks their ability to migrate — one of the trends that makes glioblastoma so deadly. .
Finally, the researchers tested their findings in vivo. They used the molecule to target cancer cells in mice in combination with the drug temozolomide (TMZ), a type of chemotherapy commonly used in glioblastoma.
They found that the combined treatment weakened the cancer cells' ability to resist pressure, while also significantly shrinking the size of the tumor. And the role of the Z4P molecule is already clear.
When TMZ alone was used, the tumors returned after a period of 100 to 150 days. But with the combination of TMZ and the Z4P molecule, all the cancer cells disappeared and the cancer-free mice recurred after 200 days.
Despite the promising results, more research is still needed to create a new therapeutic drug.
Mr. Chevet noted that in the most optimistic case, patients could have to wait another 15 years to receive this treatment. The Z4P molecule needs further modification to be more effective against cancer cells, and is tested in more animals before clinical trials in humans.
