RESEARCH UPDATES
IMPERIAL COLLEGE PUBLISHES IMPORTANT NEW RESEARCH RESULTS Researchers led by Dr Nelofer Syed at the Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at Imperial College London have published ground-breaking research in the journal, Cell Death & Disease, part of the Nature publishing house.
Their paper shows that in a mouse model, a drug that depletes levels of arginine is particularly effective when used alongside temozolomide, a standard of care chemotherapy drug already used in humans for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).
Dr Nelofer Syed said: “We have been working on this theory for a few years and were one of the first groups to prove that ADI-PEG20 works on brain tumour cell lines in the laboratory. This initial work was published in 2013.
Arginine is an amino acid, one of the building blocks of protein that can be used as a source of energy by GBM brain tumours.
“We are excited to report this first demonstration that depletion of arginine in blood is effective in treating GBM in the presence of an intact blood-brain barrier. Drugs designed to defeat brain tumours usually need to get through the bloodbrain barrier, which protects the brain from toxins in the blood stream.
The drug, ADI-PEG20, is in early stage clinical trials for other cancers, so the most effective and best tolerated dose is already being established in humans. This means that as a repurposed drug, it can move into human clinical trials for GBM more quickly than a completely novel drug.
“ADI-PEG20 is different because it works throughout the body to reduce
16 Spring 2019 www.braintumourresearch.org
arginine levels in all types of fluid, so the blood-brain barrier can’t defeat its effects.” Patients who could potentially benefit from this therapy can be identified using a simple test on the tumour sample taken for initial diagnosis by the pathologist. The trial protocol is near completion and will be submitted for funding within the next few months, so we’ll let you know if it’s successful. Help fund our work at our dedicated UK Centres of Excellence and let’s put an end to brain tumours once and for all:
www.braintumourresearch.org/ donate-now
