Wednesday, March 5, 2014

How Can A Mechanism Play Into Brain Cancer?

By Katie Arden


Brain cancer is one of the most serious conditions seen in the field of medicine, which probably goes without saying. There are so many details to consider and each of them will be given focus when talking about how to help the aforementioned condition. Is it possible that a certain mechanism can come into play for this purpose? After reading a recent report, it seems as though this is the case and the specifics that have been outlined were, to say the least, intriguing.

Companies such as Voices against Brain Cancer know how vital this condition is and why it is important for research to be conducted. Brain cancer will be focused on and one of the reasons for this is because of its various components, which are what play into the complex nature of various tumors. An article on Medical Xpress attested to the idea that the focus is greatly placed on glioma, which is viewed as the most aggressive type of cancer in this regard. The written report also made mention of assistance given by an FDA-approved food additive.

The written piece on Medical Xpress talked about the food additive and how it was looked into by Diane M. Jaworski, a professor within the University of Vermont, as well as by former graduate Patrick Long. They focused on an enzyme by the name of aspartoacylase, which is needed in order to break down a chemical referred to as N-acetyl-L-aspartate. What NAA is responsible for is being the brain's primary storage form of acetate; what this means is that it is able to switch the genes in the brain on and off. For a glioma patient, both the levels of NAA and the expression of ASPA are not very high.

It seems as though there were various efforts done in order to help increase the levels of ASPA expressions but the article said that, unfortunately, proliferation resulted from it. However, the report made mention of a food additive to be utilized later on and it was called glyceryl triacetate. Not only would this potentially be able to help glioma patients but it has been implemented in order to assist patients with Canavan disease as well. This is an inherited condition that results in brain cell damage.

With GTA put to use, though, the article detailed that the results of an experiment proved to be rather successful. Not only was GTA able to decrease the growth of glioma stem cells but it was able to do so while leaving the normal cells unharmed. This alone goes to show that there are possible results to be seen in the future, provided it is a safe compound that anyone would react positively to. With minimal toxicity and very few side-effects, this appears to be the case.




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