Thanks to your support, Curestarter researchers in Ireland have identified a possible new way to target diffuse midline glioma (also called DMG or DIPG), a rare and aggressive form of childhood brain cancer. Treatment options are extremely limited for this type of cancer, and this discovery by Professor Adrian Bracken and his team at Trinity College Dublin offers real hope for families affected by this devastating condition.
Our hope is that this discovery will lead to the development of more precise treatments for DMG - treatments that directly target the tumour’s weak points while sparing healthy cells, which is especially important in children. We are truly grateful for your support. Breakthroughs like this are only possible because of the generosity of people like you.
Why is this discovery important?
The average survival for someone diagnosed with DMG is less than one year, so this cancer is in urgent need of better treatments.
DMG tumours tend to spread out through the brain and spinal cord, instead of growing as one solid lump. Unfortunately, this means surgery is not usually possible, which in turn means doctors must rely on radiotherapy to treat the disease. And sadly, this treatment option does not always work well.
Most cases of DMG are caused by a genetic change to a tiny protein called histone H3 - a protein that normally helps make sure that long strands of DNA, which contain our genes, are packaged up and working correctly inside cells.
But when H3 becomes faulty in DMG, it disrupts an important network of molecular ‘traffic lights’. These lights normally appear regularly along our DNA strands, just as traffic lights appear along a street. They help to switch different sections of DNA on and off as and when needed by our bodies. We don’t yet know exactly how these traffic lights affect DMG growth. But Professor Bracken and his team have taken an important step forwards.
What exactly has the research discovered?
Researchers have long believed that the faulty version of H3 in DMG cells causes many of the traffic lights to stay green, meaning that genes in these areas stay switched on at a much higher level than they should be.
But Professor Bracken and his team were able to use several high-tech molecular tools to show that in some small and important areas, several traffic lights actually stay red. This keeps some crucial genes that normally slow tumour growth switched off, and allows the tumour to keep growing.
The team also found that a particular clump of cell proteins work to keep these small islands of genes switched off. Importantly, their studies show that if this group of proteins gets knocked out, no other group of proteins can step in, and DMG tumour growth stops.
What could this discovery mean for patients?
Professor Bracken’s work has uncovered a previously unknown weak spot in DMG cells - an incredibly exciting find that reveals a critical target for new treatments.
What is particularly exciting, is that the clump of proteins is actually quite rare in our cells. It makes up only a tiny amount of the DNA machinery that is involved in switching our genes on and off.
This means that any new treatment that can specifically target these proteins would be very precise, and less likely to cause unwanted side effects in diffuse midline glioma patients, who are more likely to be children.
Discoveries like this, that could make a huge difference for many families, simply would not be possible without the support of people like you.
This research is co-funded by our friends at The Brain Tumour Charity
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