A team of researchers has identified the mechanism by which glutamate regulates pediatric brain tumor growth.
Scientists have long known that glutamate can “increase growth of cancers throughout the body,” but have long been stumped as to how exactly this process takes place. Using “tumor cells isolated from patient PA [pilocytic astrocytoma, the most common type of brain tumor in children] samples, they found that PA cells hijack the function of proteins on cells’ surface that normally respond to glutamate, called glutamate receptors. Instead of transmitting glutamate’s typical electrical signal, these receptors are reprogrammed to send signals to increase cell growth.”
The researchers also observed that “drugs that block these glutamate receptors — including memantine, which is approved to treat dementia and Alzheimer’s disease — reduced human pediatric brain tumor growth in mice, a finding that points to a potential new treatment opportunity.”
These findings suggest that “tumor cells exploit normal brain-cell interactions to spur their own growth.” This opens up a number of possibilities regarding links between neurons and cancer cells in other cases. Inhibiting “glutamate receptors of tumor cells in mice with PAs — either with medications or by genetically altering the cells — reduced tumor growth. This points to a potential opportunity to repurpose glutamate receptor-targeting drugs such as memantine for the treatment of PAs.”
