Enemy in sightA DIAGNOSIS of glioma is a death sentence. This form of brain cancer (see picture) kills half of those so identified within a year, and almost all within three. The life-extending benefits of existing therapies are measured in a few short months. But that may change, and change soon, if the results of experiments on mice, conducted by Douglas Hanahan of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, and reported this week in Cancer Cell, can be replicated in people. The reason to hope for such speed is that Dr Hanahan’s method employs two drugs already approved for human use, and whose safety profiles are thus well known. Curiously, neither of the drugs in question was developed for use against cancer.
One is imipramine, an antidepressant that boosts levels of serotonin and norepinephrine, two messenger molecules which transmit signals between nerve cells. Dr Hanahan knew from research conducted by others that those who take drugs which work this way seem to have a lower-than-normal incidence of gliomas. He and his colleague Ksenya Shchors thus tried giving imipramine to mice that...Continue reading
Source: Science and technology http://ift.tt/1OUTrc0
EmoticonEmoticon