Development Of Treatments For Brain Disorders - amazonia.fiocruz.br

Development Of Treatments For Brain Disorders - you tell

Thursday, November 19, Researchers using recently developed tools to gain new insights into brain function. That knowledge will enable us to develop better treatments for neurologic and neuropsychiatric diseases. The researchers represent a variety of scientific disciplines from chemistry to engineering to psychology and more. Scientists are also making significant advances in human brain imaging by developing a new type of MRI scanner to watch the brain in action as someone moves; generating ultra-high resolution images of brain chemistry using new PET technology; and using ultrasound to noninvasively map brain electrical activity. Some grants support integrated research on neuroethical implications of BRAIN-funded neuroscience projects, including issues concerning certain types of neurosurgery and ethical challenges of using mobile neuroimaging technology in field studies. Meanwhile, others will take a unique approach to studying the brain by developing a range of innovative model systems, beyond traditional fruit flies and rodents. For example, they will study the circuits behind the way an octopus sees and makes decisions; how moths detect harmful stimuli; and the brain connections bats use to navigate in the dark. These studies will provide insights into ways that brain circuitry can affect human behavior. Development Of Treatments For Brain Disorders

November 18, Researchers have discovered that a protein thought to only be involved in the development of neurons in the brain also plays a major role in the development and growth of pancreatic cancer. Their findings demonstrate for the first time how the protein, called Netrin-G1, helps pancreatic cancer cells survive by protecting them from the immune system and supplying them with nutrients. Pancreatic cancer is difficult to treat because tumors are often fibrotic, which means they develop extra connective tissue throughout the pancreas.

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This connective tissue aids the growth of pancreatic cancer and provides a physical and biochemical protective barrier against drugs and the immune system. This protective barrier is made up of a type of cell called a cancer-associated fibroblast CAFwhich interact with cancer cells to help them grow and survive.

Edna Cukierman, Associate Professor at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia and Co-Director of the Marvin and Concetta Greenberg Pancreatic Cancer Institute, who led the study, said, "Using a system we developed to study CAFs in a fibrous-like Development Of Treatments For Brain Disorders that mimics how they would behave inside the pancreas, we identified Netrin-G1 as being highly expressed in CAFs, and found that it supports the survival of pancreatic cancer cells. We uncovered that Netrin-G1 allows CAFs to provide cancer cells with nutrition as well as secreting factors that Treatmnets anti-tumor immune cell function.

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The study, published in Cancer Discovery and part-funded by UK charity Worldwide Cancer Research, also found that an antibody that neutralizes Netrin-G1 was able to stunt the development of progression of pancreatic tumors in mice, demonstrating the potential of developing new treatments for pancreatic cancer that target Netrin-G1. Cukierman, said, "We saw that many patients express Netrin-G1 in CAFs and that these patients tend to survive for a shorter time so in the future detection of Netrin-G1 could be used to help diagnose patients.

We believe that limiting Netrin-G1 function provides the starting point for the design of new treatments in a type of cancer that is in dire need for effective therapies. This way we hope that targeting Netrin-G1 could serve, one day, to treat pancreatic cancer patients. In the UK, over 10, people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year and over 9, people lose their life to the disease. Pancreatic cancer has one of the worst survival rates of any cancer with only around 1 in 20 people surviving for 10 years or more after Development Of Treatments For Brain Disorders diagnosis. Only 1 in 4 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the UK will survive beyond one year. Helen Rippon, Chief Executive of Worldwide Cancer Research, said, "This is a fascinating new finding in cancer research which shows for the first time how a molecule thought to be involved in the brain is also able to help tumors grow in organs elsewhere in the body.

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We're delighted to see such great progress from Dr. Cukierman's project which offers a starting point for the future development of treatments against a particularly deadly type of cancer.

These positive findings come at a dark time for all of us and are a stark reminder of how dedicated our researchers are—working tirelessly towards new cancer cures even amid a global pandemic. I'm sure this news will be welcomed by all of us who have had to experience the loss of a loved one to cancer.

Adam Coulson, a husband and father from East Lothian, Scotland, who lost both his parents Brajn cancer, said, "My family and I were thrilled to hear of this breakthrough made thanks to research funded by Worldwide Cancer Research. In November we lost my dad to pancreatic cancer. I was only 22, Dad—just When Dad died, Mum became two parents in one.]