Brain Tumor Center of Excellence: A Research Update
From Clinical Update, Winter 2005
Established in 2003, the Brain Tumor Center of Excellence (COE) is maturing quickly. In the past 12 months it has received almost $6 million in NIH funding.
With a focus on developing more ties between basic research and translational research, the Brain Tumor COE operates from a unique research and clinical base. Drawing on the expertise of more than 30 esteemed scientists working in a collaborative environment, the researchers are able to capitalize on the best aspects of the basic research and apply it to clinical models.
The center has concentrated its efforts in several particularly promising areas: molecular therapies, protection against treatment-induced brain injury and quality of life, valuable preclinical models and bioanatomic imaging.
Waldemar Debinski, M.D., Ph.D., a nationally recognized physician-scientist who is director of the center, pioneered a molecular therapy to destroy glioblastoma cells without harming healthy tissue.
His research is based on a finding that glioblastoma cells over-express large amounts of a receptor for interleukin as (IL13), a protein that regulates the immune system. Debinski combined IL13 with a bacterial toxin to create a drug that targets cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed.
“We’ve already begun developing the next generation of the drug, which appears to be more potent and safer than the original,” said Debinski. It may be available for clinical trials as early as next year.
He is also exploring the idea of vaccines for brain tumors—with the hope that one day a patient may get a shot in the arm to prolong the efficacy of treatment.
For Mike Robbins, Ph.D., a researcher who leads the section on radiation biology, finding ways to reduce radiation-induced brain injury and improve quality of life are his life’s ambition. “The ultimate goal is to find a way to protect the brain from radiation injury,” said Robbins.
Robbins is using a preclinical animal model that offers both palliative treatment for the animal and a promising potential treatment for humans.
Interestingly, in dogs with broader heads like boxers and bulldogs, 98 percent of their brain is analogous to the human brain—and they develop spontaneous brain tumors very much like human brain tumors. Robbins and others at the BTCOE are working collaboratively with researchers at the Center for Comparative Medicine at Virginia Tech, headed by director John Robertson, V.M.D., Ph.D., to test medications that seem to have the potential to combat oxidative stress and reduce cognitive impairment, and also to combat cancer.
“This research benefits not only the dogs, because we’re able to improve their quality of life, but also offers the opportunity to study the genetics for predisposition to tumors,” said Robbins.
Researchers also are taking advantage of advances in bioanatomic imaging—the combination of anatomic imaging modalities like CT and MRI with biologic imaging like PET—to enlarge their infrastructure for preclinical studies. The addition of 7Tesla advanced MRI and micro MRI for studying animal models significantly increases their capabilities in analyzing the effects of treatment on cell structure and anatomy.