Research Shows Brain Tumors Grow by Hijacking Circadian Clocks

Glioblastoma multiforme is an aggressive type of cancer that primarily affects the brain. A new study has found that this cancer has an internal clock which is synced every day to capitalize on the circadian rhythm of the patient. This feature allows tumors to grow as the patient’s body releases hormones.

The study, which was carried out by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, discovered that blocking circadian signals significantly reduced the growth of tumors as well as disease progression.

The first author of the study, Maria F. Gonzalez-Aponte, explained that prior studies had allowed the researchers to establish a pattern.

In their previous studies, the researchers had discovered that chemotherapy treatment was the most effective around normal waking time, which formed the basis of their hypothesis that tumors knew the time of day outside.

For their study, the researchers investigated if glioblastoma responded to the surge of glucocorticoids to sync its timing to a host as glucocorticoid levels increase significantly daily before an individual awakens. Glucocorticoids are steroid hormones that play a role in the fight-or-flight response, in addition to regulating biological processes like immunity and metabolism.

To begin with, Gonzalez-Aponte placed mice with tumors in cages that could be made dark or light using a timer. This allowed the mice to adopt a modified scheduled, permitting researchers to monitor the cancer cells in the tumors for any shifts. They observed that two clock genes in the cancer cells; Per2 and Bmal1, modified their schedules as the mice changed theirs.

This, Gonzalez-Aponte noted, meant that the cancer cells were recalibrating their daily rhythms as the mice did.

The researchers’ findings are important, partly because they demonstrate how brain tumors respond to dexamethasone, a steroid drug commonly prescribed to patients with brain cancer to manage brain edema after surgery and radiation. The researchers discovered that administering this drug in the evening suppressed tumor growth in mice while giving it in the morning promoted glioblastoma growth.

The paper’s co-author, Prof. Joshua B, Rubin, explained that this research offered an example of how important framing research in real-life biology was to improving the treatment of cancer.

The study’s senior author, Professor Erik D. Herzog, noted that the interaction between the circadian system and brain tumors was now an actionable pathway to optimize treatments. The researchers published their findings in Cancer Cell.

They are now focused on determining whether there are times during the day when dexamethasone can be used to decrease brain edema without promoting tumor growth.

Different companies, such as CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP), are also engaged in their own efforts to find the next-generation treatment for brain malignancies. Those efforts by various players could yield superior drugs that improve the clinical outcomes of patients with brain cancer.

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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