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You will serve Hashem your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will remove the disease from your environment. Exodus 23:25 (The Bible of Israel ™)
HU Prof. Rotem Karni (right) and doctoral candidate Maxim Mogilevsky at the lab. (Courtesy of the Hebrew University)
Glioblastoma seems scary – and it is. This malignant tumor is the most aggressive cancer that starts inside the brain and the patients diagnosed with this cancer usually only have 11 to 20 months to live. There are rare cases, about 3% to 5% of the victims, who survive for five years or more.
The initial symptoms are not specific and may include nausea, headaches, personality changes and even signs of stroke. But cancer, which usually starts at age 64, often causes patients to rapidly decline or even lose consciousness. One of the main problems in treating this cancer is that its cells are rapidly developing resistance to chemotherapy.
The cause of the tumor, which occurs in three out of 100,000 people per year and usually develops in the white matter of the brain, is not known. There are genetic risk factors, such as neurofibromatosis or Li-Graumeni syndrome. Another risk factor, but unexplained, is having already undergone radiotherapy.
There is no known way to prevent glioblastoma and the treatment is difficult because the tumor cells are very resistant to conventional therapies and the brain is likely to be damaged by conventional therapy and has a very limited ability to repair yourself.
Another barrier to treatment is that many drugs can not cross the blood-brain barrier to fight the tumor. When time permits, surgery, followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy, may be offered. It is not clear if trying to eliminate all or simply most cancers is better. However, glioblastomas are generally resistant to conventional chemotherapy and, even after such procedures, the cancer usually recurs.
But now, researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel have proposed a new treatment for glioblastoma – the type of cancer that John McCain has suffered – that could potentially improve and extend the lives of patients.
Professor Rotem Karni and his team at the Institute of Medical Research at Israel Canada University have just published their promising results in the journal Nucleic acid research.
As part of their research, Karni and his doctoral student, Maxim Mogilevsky, have designed a molecule that inhibits tumor growth of glioblastoma by regulating the proteins that it produces. The MKNK2 gene produces two different proteins through a process called "alternative splicing of RNA". Ironically, these proteins have two opposite functions: MNK2a inhibits cancer growth, while MNK2b supports cancer growth.
The new molecule of the Hebrew University modifies the MKNK2 splicing so that production of the tumor-stimulating protein decreases, while production of the tumor-suppressing protein increases. As a result, cancerous tumors diminish or disappear completely.
"This revolutionary molecule can not only kill tumor cells alone, but it also has the power to help former chemotherapy-resistant cells become chemo-sensitive again," Karni said.
In his study, the tumors decreased or died completely in mice bearing human glioblastoma tumor cells treated with this new molecule. This did not occur in mice treated with an inactive molecule. "Our research presents a new approach for the treatment of glioblastoma. In the future, we will be able to tailor treatments to patients based on the amount of cancer-inhibiting protein produced by their tumors, "added Karni.
A patent for this technology has been registered and issued in the United States and Europe through Yissum, the research and development company of the Hebrew University. The research was funded by the
The German-Israeli Foundation, the Israel Innovation Authority, the Israel Scientific Foundation, the Israel Cancer Research Fund, the Israeli Cancer Association, the Henry & Merilyn Taub Foundation, and the Carol Epstein Foundation.
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