Scientists from Johns Hopkins University were able to develop a gel therapy that showcased remarkable effectiveness in treating brain tumors of mice.
Gel Cures Mice With Brain Tumors
According to Science Daily, the team mixed an antibody and an anticancer medication into a self-assembling solution that turns into a gel. It could fill the small grooves that stay after the surgical removal of a brain tumor.
This gel may touch areas that surgical procedures may overlook and that current medications struggle to target. Their novel results were included in the PNAS journal.
On top of this, the gel seemingly triggered a certain immune response that typical mice with glioblastoma find hard to activate on their own. When surviving mice were further challenged with a glioblastoma tumor, their immune systems defeated the cancer even without any additional treatments being administered. Science Daily notes that the gel therapy does not just shoo cancer but also recalibrates the immune system with immunological memory against recurrence.
Results revealed that 100% of mice were cured through this novel gel therapy, which is an extremely remarkable feat.
This also stresses how surgery is necessary for the approach to work. When the gel was directly applied to the brain without the tumor being surgically removed, survival rates were cut by half.
Honggang Cui, the study's lead researcher and a chemical and biomolecular engineer from Johns Hopkins University, explains that the surgery may have alleviated pressure and enabled more time for activation.
The gel is composed of paclitaxel-made filaments that are nano-sized. The US News adds that it enables the self-delivery of chemotherapy to the tumor site. More specifically, it provides a channel for the antibody aCD47 to be delivered. As it evenly covers the tumor cavity, the gel steadily expels medication in the course of several weeks. Active components also stay close to the injection area.
With the specific antibody in use, these specialists are trying to bypass one of the biggest hurdles in glioblastoma research. This is because it aims at macrophages, which is a specific cell type that fosters immunity but protects cancer at times.
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Glioblastoma
According to US News, glioblastomas are brain tumors that grow the fastest. In most cases, they are already advance when they are detected. For individuals aged 20 to 44, the survival rate in the course of five years is 22%, while it is 9% for adults aged 45 to 54 and 6% for individuals aged 55 to 64.
Cui notes that it is necessary to further test the gel before administering the gel therapy to human patients with glioblastoma. However, Dr. David Reardon, the Center for Neuro-Oncology clinical director at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, explains that the approach is highly likely to be transferable to human patients of glioblastoma. It also provides hope for facilitating better outcomes for these tumors.
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