The tissues in our bodies are made largely of fluid. This fluid moves around cells and is essential to normal body function.
However, in people with glioblastoma, the deadliest form of brain cancer, this fluid has a much higher pressure, making it move very fast. This causes cancer cells to spread. Furthermore, a common cancer therapy—convection-enhanced delivery—can make this fluid move even faster.
A team of researchers at Virginia Tech may have found a solution to stopping this inevitable spread of cancer cells. In an article published today in Scientific Reports, they present a drug that can block the way cancer cells respond to fluid flow. This work is part of a project examining the flow of interstitial fluid—fluid surrounding the cells—in the spread of glioma cells.
In mouse models of glioblastoma, the team tested how convection-enhanced delivery causes glioma cells to invade the rest of the brain. They also tested a drug called AMD3100 to block the fluid's rapid movement and the spread of cancer cells. According to the researchers, the drug, which already has been used in clinics, appeared to be a game changer.
"[Glioblastoma] is so deadly, and there hasn't been a shift in treatment response in decades. Something needs to change," says senior author Jennifer Munson of Virginia Tech. "With my expertise and looking at fluid flow, maybe there's an answer there that we haven't seen."
Munson's principal aim in her research is to raise awareness of interstitial fluid flow throughout the body.
"This is a force that isn't accounted for much in brain tissues," she says. "My goal is to have more people thinking about this force and that it can actually have effects on cells that we don't intend."
Image: Jennifer Munson, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, is leading a research team that may have found a solution to stopping the spread of brain cancer cells. Image courtesy of Virginia Tech.