New solution to stop the spread of brain cancer

The tissues of our body are largely made of liquid. It moves around the cells and is essential to the normal functioning of the body.

But in some cases, this liquid can do more harm than good.

In people with glioblastoma, the most deadly form of brain cancer, this fluid is under much higher pressure, causing it to move quickly and force cancer cells to spread. And a common anticancer therapy, which inserts a drug directly into the tumor with the help of a catheter, can cause this fluid to move even faster.

A team of Virginia Tech researchers, led by Jennifer Munson, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics at the College of Engineering, may have found a way to stop the inevitable spread of these cancer cells.

In an article published on November 19 in Scientific reportsChase Cornelison, lead author and postdoctoral researcher at Virginia Tech, details the use of a drug that, according to Munson's team, can block how cancer cells respond to fluid flow. This work is part of a five-year research grant project led by Munson in several universities, which examines the role of interstitial fluid flow in the propagation of glioma cells. The interstitial fluid is the fluid that surrounds the cells of the body.

In the labs, Cornelison and other members of the Munson team used glioblastoma mice to test how a particular approach to cancer treatment, called enhanced convective delivery, made glioma cells invade the rest of the brain. To block the rapid movement of the fluid and the spread of cancer cells, they tested a drug called AMD3100. The drug, which has already been used in clinics, seems to have changed the deal, Cornelison said.

The majority of this research took place at the University of Virginia, where Munson had previously worked before joining Virginia Tech in 2017.

This discovery could lead to preventing glioblastoma from spreading, said Cornelison.

"I hope that since the drug we used to block flow stimulation is currently being used by patients, clinicians might be able to combine this drug with drugs when they access convection," he says. did he declare.

Munson has been studying glioblastoma for more than 10 years and is more recently interested in the role of interstitial fluid flow in cancer cells and the brain.

"He [glioblastoma] is so lethal, and the response to treatment has not changed for decades. Something must change, "she said. With my expertise and the review of fluid flow, there may be an answer that we have not seen. "

Munson is interested in the circulation of interstitial fluid throughout the body.

"It is a force that is not taken into account in brain tissue," she said. "My goal is to make more people think about this force and that it can really have effects on cells that we do not want."