Drugs Used to Ease Side Effects From Chemotherapy Also Successful in Stopping Growth of Brain Tumors

A new study at the University of Adelaide has been successful in demonstrating a drug used to recuperate from the side effects of chemotherapy can also help in stopping the growth of brain tumors, according to Medical Xpress.

Researchers learnt of one of the most important discoveries while studying a connection between brain tumors and a peptide known as "substance P," which is known to cause inflammation in the brain. The discovery may help in developing better treatments to cure brain tumors.

The nervous system releases the peptide P in great levels throughout the body. For instance, swelling of the tissue after an injury is caused due to the release of substance P. Researchers also noted that after a traumatic brain injury or stroke, levels of substance P are known to vastly increase in the brain. Dr. Elizabeth Harford-Wright, a postdoctoral fellow in the University's Adelaide Centre for Neuroscience Research, notes previous studies have shown that high levels of substance P are found in "different tumor types around the body."

Dr. Harford-Wright wanted to know if the increase in the levels of substance P is in any way supporting the growth of brain tumor cells. Also understanding how to pause the growth of tumor cells by blocking substance P could greatly help in the treatment of such tumors. Since previous studies and her observations confirmed elevated levels of substance P found in brain tumor tissue, Dr. Harford-Wright used an antagonist drug called Emend to block substance P binding to a receptor called NK1.

After successfully blocking the substance P, the results were surprising.

"We were successful in blocking substance P from binding to the NK1 receptor, which resulted in a reduction in brain tumor growth - and it also caused cell death in the tumor cells," Dr Harford-Wright said. "So preventing the actions of substance P from carrying out its role in brain tumors actually halted the growth of brain cancer. This is a very exciting result, and it offers further opportunities to study possible brain tumor treatments over the coming years."

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