The diagnosis of “malignant brain tumor” is still largely equivalent to a death sentence for those affected. Even after surgery and subsequent chemotherapy and radiation treatment, the cancer returns in most patients. Life expectancy drops considerably. Just under ten percent survive five years. In experiments with cancer cells, research teams in Austria and Sweden have now managed to administer chemotherapeutic agents in a targeted manner using an ion pump. The therapy should also lead to less severe side effects.
“This is the first time that an ion pump has been tested as a possible method for treating malignant brain tumors,” explains physicist Daniel Simon from the organic electronics laboratory at the Linköping University in Sweden. “We used cancer cells in the lab and the results are extremely promising. But it will probably be another five to ten years before we can use this new technology in the treatment of brain tumors. “
Scientists from the fields of biophysics and neurosurgery of the Medical University of Graz used cells from glioblastomas for this. This most common and most aggressive type of cancer that can develop in the brain generally results in the lowest life expectancy for those affected. The reason is that even after the brain tumor is surgically removed, small parts of the tumor often remain embedded between the brain cells. Since no operation, no matter how precise, can remove these cells without damaging the surrounding healthy brain tissue, attempts are made to kill them as much as possible with radiation and chemotherapy. In this way, a recurrence of the tumor can at least be delayed.
Direct medication to the brain in a targeted manner
However, these chemotherapy drugs have one major drawback. Since they are usually administered either intravenously or in tablet form, they have to pass through the entire bloodstream – with sometimes severe side effects – until they reach the brain. In doing so, they also have to overcome the blood-brain barrier, which prevents countless substances from reaching the brain from the blood. For this reason, very few drugs that could work against these tumors actually reach their destination.
The researchers from the Medical University of Graz and the University of Linköping have now developed a more effective method that is gentler on the organism. They guide gemcitabine, an extremely effective chemotherapeutic agent, directly to the tumor in the brain with the help of an implanted ion pump and thereby bypass the blood-brain barrier.
Spare nerve cells
“The glioblastoma treatment that is currently used in the clinics damages cancer and nerve cells to the same extent,” says Linda Waldherr, university assistant at the Medical University of Graz. “With the gemcitabine ion pump, however, we only fight the cancer cells; at the same time, neurons are not damaged. In addition, our experiments on cultured glioblastoma cells show that more cancer cells are killed with the ion pump than with manual treatment ”, says Waldherr, who carried out the study published in the specialist journal“ Advanced Materials Technologies ”together with researchers from Linköping University.
Since the ion pump, which transports the active ingredient from an electrolyte reservoir into cells or a tumor, uses very little electricity, it does not activate neurons. This also prevents unwanted nerve signals. Another plus point is that thanks to the low current and voltage, no large power supplies or batteries are required for a possible therapeutic technology.
More tests
“The pressure in the brain is extremely sensitive. If you now use an ion pump to transport the drug instead of a liquid-powered device, the intracranial pressure is not affected, ”explains Rainer Schindl, biophysicist at the Medical University of Graz and co-author of the study. “In addition, the dosage is controlled electrically, which makes the delivery of the chemotherapy drug extremely precise. The next step will be to use the ion pump to evaluate various chemotherapeutic agents that previously had too strong side effects or that could not cross the blood-brain barrier. “
The research project is co-financed by the Austrian Science Fund FWF as part of the 1000 Ideas Program, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research.
Cover photo: Ion pumps (transparent plastic tubes) are installed on dishes in which vascularized brain tumors are cultivated, which transport the active ingredient into the cells via electrical control. Source: © Linda Waldherr
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