Fighting brain cancer is challenging, but new research offers hope. In May, a team from Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech published a paper in APL Bioengineering about a new method to target glioblastoma, a deadly brain tumor. NIH grants support this work, which builds on past research about H-FIRE, a technique using electrical pulses to destroy cancer cells without heat.
Treating cancer is hard, and brain cancers face the added challenge of the blood-brain barrier. This barrier protects the brain from toxins and blocks most small-molecule drugs, including cancer treatments, from entering.
John Rossmeisl from Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine explains that the barrier stops about 99% of these drugs from reaching the brain.
H-FIRE, which uses square-shaped waves, can break down the barrier and kill cancer cells. This study is the first to use sinusoidal waves, introducing a new method called burst sine wave electroporation (B-SWE).
Researchers used a rodent model to compare sinusoidal and square-shaped waves. They found that B-SWE caused less cell and tissue damage but disrupted the blood-brain barrier more effectively.
In some cases, both cell destruction and barrier disruption are ideal. In others, like after the surgical removal of a tumor, barrier disruption is more important to allow drugs to reach the remaining cancer cells. B-SWE could disrupt the barrier with minimal damage to healthy tissue.
The study shows that while square waves well disrupt the blood-brain barrier, B-SWE does it even better, potentially allowing more cancer-fighting drugs to enter the brain.
“We thought we had solved the problem, but this shows there’s always room for better solutions,” said Rossmeisl, associate head of the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences.
The researchers encountered an issue: the sinusoidal wave caused more muscle contractions, risking organ damage. Adjusting the B-SWE dose reduced the contractions while maintaining effective blood-brain barrier disruption.
Next, they plan to test B-SWE on an animal model of brain cancer to compare it with the conventional H-FIRE technique.
A new technique shows promise in treating aggressive brain tumors by effectively disrupting the blood-brain barrier, allowing more drugs to reach and eliminate cancer cells. This could offer a powerful new tool in the fight against brain cancer.
Journal reference:
Sabrina N. Campelo, Zaid S. Salameh et al., Burst sine wave electroporation (B-SWE) for expansive blood-brain barrier disruption and controlled non-thermal tissue ablation for neurological disease. APL Bioengineering. DOI: 10.1063/5.0198382.
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