McMaster University researchers develop groundbreaking new drug to fight brain cancer

[00:00:00]Researchers from an Ontario university have made headway in the fight against brain cancer. Their findings make up a recent study highlighting the development of possible new drugs. The team of researchers hailing from McM McMaster University looked at making new drugs that could intercept cancer cells before they reach the brain. Their study shows that the drugs could target an enzyme that cancers use in order to spread. One of the researchers says the drugs could include a pill taken once a day and could be available within 5 years. With me now is one of the researchers, professor of neurosurgery and neurooncology at the McMaster University and Kings College London, Dr. Sheila Singh. Dr. Good evening and thank you for your time.

[00:00:45]>> Hi Ash, thank you for having me.

[00:00:47]>> So your team has developed a new approach to stopping other forms of cancer from spreading to the brain. Can you explain how it works in in simple terms?

[00:00:56]Yes, certainly actually. So, brain metastases are secondary cancers that spread from known and diagnosed primary lung cancers. The most common of them being lung cancer, breast cancer, and melanoma or skin cancer. And what happens is that cells are constantly trying to break into your circulation and cross what we call the bloodb brain barrier to invade the brain. And this process is happening constantly. It's called the metastatic cascade. So once a brain metastasis develops, you have a full-blown tumor that's growing in your brain whose origin is from that lung cancer or breast cancer or melanoma. And in a lot of cases, you've already been treated for that primary cancer successfully. And in fact, you may be cured of your primary lung cancer, but once those cells have seated the brain, then these second cancers will form. And very often, they're already resistant to the drugs used to treat the primary cancer. And so we really need to de develop new and targeted therapies that work specifically on these brain metastases. My team reasoned that once the brain metastasis is fully formed, in fact there are many other metastases that could have seated the brain as well. So rather than trying to treat the full-blown metastatic spread, can we block the spread um before the cells even arrive in the brain? So how far is this research now in terms of the prevention that you're speaking of and how long could it be before this treatment is actually truly available?

[00:02:25]So this research is still pre-clinical meaning that it's in development in research laboratories at McMaster University and myself and my uh medicinal chemistry professor colleague uh professor Jake McGolan and I have developed uh a new class of drugs that selectively inhibit one form of the enzyme that you mentioned. Now what we found is that the enzyme you mentioned which is called IMPDH there's actually two versions of this enzyme. Let's call them one and two.

[00:02:54]Version one is found in your white blood cells and in fact in many cells in the body and that's the form of the enzyme that if you block that enzyme with a drug, you get suppression of your immune system, which is not something you want for a cancer patient. However, in the paper we just published, we discovered that if you block the second version of the enzyme IMPDH2, then you can actually block the migratory invasive capacity of those brain metastasis cells without causing immunosuppression.

[00:03:24]So, Dr. McGolan and I are trying to develop a class of imphive inhibitors that will block the spread of brain metastasis without inducing imunosuppression. And so far these drugs are moving into models in the lab and we hope very soon to be able to advance them into clinical trials.

[00:03:42]>> And Dr. Singh wishing you and your study all the very best. Thank you so much for sharing this this with us this afternoon. That's professor of neurosurgery and neuroncology at McMaster University in Kings College, London, Dr. Sheila Singh. Thanks again.