10 minute read
Editorial
from 19 October 2022
Researcher takes steps further in brain tumour treatment
Elah Ajene, staff
Scientists across the globe are taking massive steps in the long-standing quest to cure cancer by optimizing treatment regimes, developing new classes of cancer medication and expanding our understanding of the disease.
Among those contributing to our understanding of cancer is University of Manitoba professor and head of the department of human anatomy and cell science, Sabine Hombach-Klonisch, who sought out the mechanism of brain tumour development.
Her laboratory-based research is on both primary and secondary forms of brain cancer. Primary brain cancer involves tumour growth that originates within the brain, whereas in secondary brain cancer, cancer cells initially begin in a different part of the body and progress to the brain.
Hombach-Klonisch is currently focusing on the subtypes of breast cancer cells that metastasize — spread to the brain — which results in secondary brain cancer.
“I’m interested in this because brain metastasis are so difficult to treat at the moment,” she said.
Hombach-Klonisch explained that minimal progress has been made when these cancer cells have spread to the brain. The challenge is that researchers need to first understand how breast cancer cells “colonize” the brain by penetrating the blood-brain barrier — a protective cell layer between the brain tissues and blood vessels — and proceed to thrive within the brain.
Many drugs used in cancer treatment insufficiently penetrate the brain due to the blood-brain barrier, so treatment of brain tumours may be rendered unsuccessful. Hombach-Klonisch noted that the cancer cells evolve when they grow in the brain due to differences in micro-environment and interactions between surrounding cells.
“They talk to each other and we have not fully understood what that conversation is and how that influences the response to treatment,” she said
To study these underlying mechanisms, Hombach-Klonisch uses experimental models in understanding interactions within the microenvironment which could lead to more efficient treatment for brain cancer. By using functional organisms, specifically mice, Hom-
staff Jenna Solomon / / graphic
bach-Klonisch is able to develop models that mimic human tumour development.
With an interdisciplinary team of scientists, neurosurgeons and pathologists at the U of M, Hombach-Klonisch uses tumour tissues from solitary brain tumours removed from patients. These isolated cells are then cultured and used in these mouse models.
In Hombach-Klonisch’s recent mouse model, the cultured cells were injected into the left-ventricles of the mouse heart, allowing the cells to circulate within the blood and invade the brain — similar to tumour cells within the human body.
According to Hombach-Klonisch, this can take as long as three months.
“You have that mouse sitting there, and you don’t know whether this mouse will develop brain metastasis,” she said, “and suddenly you’ll realize that [the] mouse gets sick.”
Furthermore, Hombach-Klonisch mentioned that limitations may arise as the mice used in the models need to have a suppressed immune system, otherwise the human cells injected into their bodies would be rejected. Still, these animal models allow the researcher to study treatment responses and understand the responses to these human cells in the mouse brain.
On a molecular level, Hombach-Klonisch is able to analyze the changes and response of microglial cells and astrocytes — specialized cells in the central nervous system that perform many roles in the brain, including maintaining the blood-brain barrier — under treatment.
“If we understand more about that, we may be able to help improve the treatment responses and really improve in the long term,” she said.
Currently, Hombach-Klonisch is doing high-throughput screening with collaborators at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which is used in drug discovery to identify specific biological compounds.
As a single mouse model is insufficient for general applicable drug development in brain cancer, Hombach-Klonisch hopes to develop even more models.
She explained that the molecular response of the mice models, such as the changes in gene expression and different proteins present at different treatment stages, are essential in understanding the resistance mechanisms of the tumour.
In the history of cancer treatment, Hombach-Klonisch noted that the use of a single drug was rarely effective. Understanding these mechanisms opens the possibility of developing dual strategies for treatment, ensuring patient longevity.
“We’re trying to get a dual treatment where we have a better chance to kill more cancer cells more effectively without harming the body cells too much,” she said.
“We can have a better life for the patient.”
research@themanitoban.com
Ye’s deleted tweet glimpse of his antisemitism
Influencer’s threatening language towards Jewish people will only result in violence
Sarah Cohen, staff
Jewish people across the world woke up Sunday, Oct. 9 to a highly antisemitic tweet by influential designer and artist, Ye — known also as Kanye West — posted the night before.
This came just days after the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur.
In the tweet, removed by Twitter for violating community guidelines, Ye stated “when I wake up I’m going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”
The tweet follows another now-deleted post from his Instagram account Saturday, sharing a screenshot of a text message in which he wrote, “Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me[.] I told you this was war.”
This is not the first of Ye’s controversial public statements recently. Amid this controversy was Ye’s debut of “White Lives Matter” shirts at an Oct. 3 fashion show in Paris, noted by many journalists as a nod to white supremacy.
Despite writing “death con” in his tweet, Ye appeared to be referring to the U.S. military Defense Ready Condition, commonly known as DEFCON. DEFCON has five levels, with five being the lowest level of readiness and one being the immediate threat or beginning of nuclear war. DEFCON three indicates the need to escalate readiness for war, in which forces need to be able to mobilize in a matter of minutes.
It is easy to ignore Ye’s statements, and some even excuse them because of his bipolar disorder diagnosis. Mental health issues affect too many people worldwide, and giving grace to those who experience the effects of mental illness is beyond necessary. However, inciting violence toward Jewish people is dangerous.
Ye declaring he’ll go “death con 3” on Jewish people opens the door for his followers and others with his mindset to begin and continue antisemitic behaviour.
Young audiences are impressionable. Influencers and idols tend to set behavioural norms for young people. Even though the tweet was deleted from Ye’s account, it is still accessible, and that access to words from a powerful influencer gives people a platform to express hate and use threatening language.
Some retweets and comments contain horrendous language. “About time these people get exposed” and “f--k Jews and hail Hitler” are just two examples.
In response, the American Jewish Committee posted to its Instagram account, noting that Ye uses tropes of “greed” and “control” to further justify his antisemitism.
During a conversation with Hoda Kotb on TODAY, actor Jamie Lee Curtis, who has Hungarian-Jewish roots, said regarding Ye’s antisemitism, “it’s a big concern, you know, these tools of communication are beautiful and they can connect us, and then they can just wedge us and people can pour their bile through these portals into our lives.”
Curtis’s reaction was not an isolated one, as other public figures and institutions including the Holocaust Museum L.A., U.S. Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and comedian Sarah Silverman all spoke out regarding Ye’s statements.
Putting language like Ye’s into the world will only encourage hate and lessen the severity of antisemitism.
The genocide that resulted from the Holocaust during the lar to Ye’s.
How hard will it be for people to justify violence toward Jews after Friday’s tweet?
Dallin Chicoine / staff / graphic
Second World War stemmed from Hitler’s anti-Jewish legislation and speeches, which often cited Jewish people as communists and a danger to national security among other arguments in order to justify concentration camps and mass murder. This language sounds all too simicomment@themanitoban.com
A public (dis)service
Though narrowly avoiding a strike, City of Winnipeg shows disrespect for its workers
Braden Bristow, staff
After months of negotiation following the expiry of City of Winnipeg workers’ contracts, there may finally be an end in sight for the workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 500.
The potential strike caused by inconclusive negotiations would have been the first major city strike for this section of employees since the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.
The City’s Chief Administrative Officer, Michael Jack, claimed that the tentative agreement had not yet been reached. Regardless of Jack’s claim, the City of Winnipeg and CUPE Local 500 finally reached a potential agreement hours before the strike deadline of midnight on Oct. 12.
The deal is still pending a review from the workers that CUPE Local 500 represents, but it is a good sign that a strike can be avoided. It only took months of waiting and the threat of around 5,000 city workers walking off the job. While the details of the agreement have not yet been released, we can only hope it was worth the wait.
Needless to say, the City of Winnipeg has conducted itself incredibly poorly. The city has been more than happy to have workers continue servicing the city even though their contract expired at the end of February 2021.
To have workers servicing the city without a reliable contract is labour exploitation, plain and simple.
Without a contract, workers have no security against inflation or the rising cost of living. Quite frankly, it is a miracle there has not been a strike sooner. A wage increase in accordance with Winnipeg’s economic environment is the bare minimum the city should be offering.
It is also important to keep in mind the various services that those represented by CUPE Local 500 offer to the city. CUPE Local 500 represents various workers affiliated with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Public Works, Winnipeg’s RBC Convention Center, the Winnipeg Humane Society and Water and Waste.
Without the service of these workers, the city would simply cease to function properly. Buses would be out of service, public works would be in disarray, clean drinking water would be a pipe dream and our water waste would back up into the streets.
Those represented by the union belong to a diverse group of industries and services that are instrumental to the City of Winnipeg, making it even more of a slap in the face to these workers that the city has taken this long to issue a potentially fair deal.
The city’s capacity to deal fairly in contract negotiations with services has been proven in the past. In October of last year, the city ratified the contract for the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg.
If one needs more evidence that the city seems to favour certain organizations, the Winnipeg Police Service itself received 27 per cent of the entire city budget in 2021, with over 85 per cent of the $301 million they received going to salaries and benefits alone.
What this shows is that there is more than enough money to go around for the many organizations that serve our city. However, when it comes to CUPE Local 500 and other organizations driven to strike, such as the Amalgamated Transit Union, there is a bitter struggle.
As a reminder, this agreement is still only tentative. At the time of writing this article, the details of the agreement are not known and one can only guess what the general feelings of CUPE Local 500 labourers are following recent events.
It is necessary to have a clear understanding of the situation Winnipeg has found itself in. This potential strike has not come about out of thin air. Rather, it is the result of negotiation stonewalling and lack of appreciation for those who keep the city moving.
While the strike has been postponed, it is much too early to say that it has been outright prevented. Although, one can hope the offer provided by the city is enough to satisfy the needs of Winnipeg’s labourers.
Dallin Chicoine / staff / graphic
