New Research Suggests Dietary Change Could Improve Glioblastoma Treatment Outcomes

Researchers at the University of Michigan have published a study which suggests that implementing a dietary adjustment could make glioblastoma, a deadly type of brain cancer, more susceptible to chemotherapy and radiation treatments targeting the tumors in the brain. 

The study, whose findings appeared in the Nature journal on September 3, suggests that when scientists gain deep understanding of the different mechanisms through which tumor cells alter their metabolic systems inside a patient to boost the proliferation of the tumor, it could unlock novel ways to fight this cancer that has so far been very difficult to treat. 

Professor Costas Lyssiotis, the co-author of this study, explains that healthy brain cells require fuel in order to execute their different functions, such as releasing chemical messengers and performing electrical signaling. When cancer invades the brain, it tweaks the normal functioning of the tumor cells and rewires those cells to become “specialized dividing cells,” hence enabling the cancer to spread rapidly. 

The way fuel processing changes within the brain is a major point of study for researchers because understanding what exactly happens promises to uncover ways through which treatments can be equipped to differentiate between tumor cells and healthy cells, Lyssiotis says. Successful treatment hinges on killing as many tumor cells while minimizing casualties among normal/healthy cells. 

For their study, the team focused on analyzing the ways in which glioblastoma cells warp their metabolic processes within animal and human brains. Leveraging a diverse team of specialists in rodent and human brain surgery, molecular analysis and metabolic pathways, they assessed live brain tissues from GBM patients and also analyzed brain tissues from rodents having the same brain cancer. 

Before surgery, patients received tagged glucose infusions so its metabolism could be observed. Timorous tissues and nearby healthy tissue when then removed and flash-frozen. Blood samples were also obtained on a half-hourly basis during surgery. 

An analysis of the brain samples showed marked differences in how healthy tissue metabolized glucose in contrast to how tumor cells utilized glucose. For healthy cells, the glucose provided fuel and raw material for the manufacture of serine, an amino acid vital in the functioning of neurotransmitters. However, tumor cells used glucose differently. They directed the glucose towards nucleotides production. Nucleotides are the stuff from which DNA is made. Thus, tumor cells utilized glucose to make it possible to replicate endlessly. 

This explains why radiation and chemo is unable to completely eradicate tumors since the damaged DNA in the tumor is repaired using the nucleotides made from glucose supplies. Tumor cells also scavenge serine from the surrounding environment, further boosting their replication. 

The researchers then wanted to see what would happen if tumor cells were denied serine from dietary sources. In the lab, this deprivation compelled the cancer to channel glucose to serine production, thereby slowing nucleotide production and making the tumor cells more vulnerable to being destroyed by chemoradiation treatments. The mice treated in this way lived longer. 

Given that GBM cells adapt rapidly, the researchers say this intervention may have a small window within which it is effective. That brief window may be all it takes to deal the cancer a deadly blow, the researchers say. 

For humans, the study team says low-protein diets coupled with protein-shakes free from serine could attain the needed disruption to the tumor during chemoradiation treatment. More needs to be done before testing these study findings on human subjects, but the hope remains of new ways to target the brain cancer. As other companies like CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) also explore other ways to treat glioblastoma, an efficacious treatment could soon be found. 

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CNSP 

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