England (Commonwealth Union) – Schwannoma tumors are usually associated with the nervous systems, which are benign most of the time but in rare occasions can be cancerous. Schwannoma tumors often result in obstructive issues to the nervous system. New research led by the University of Plymouth, has revealed that two novel drugs that are orally administered can both block the growth, and shrink the size of a tumor type found in the nervous system.
The Schwannomas, often grow on the nerves that carry hearing and balance information into the brain. Schwannomas are the most frequent nerve sheath tumor, which can develop in anyone but are also associated with a hereditary condition such as Neurofibromatosis Type II (NF2). For NF2, where the role of the protein Merlin is lost in cells, patients often end up with not just Schwannomas, but also meningioma tumors linked to the brain and spinal cord.
Corrective measures of both tumor types are difficult, with surgery that is the present treatment but may also lead to an elevated risk of damage to the surrounding normal nervous system tissue.
With new treatments much required, a global team of researchers made the Hippo signaling pathway a key area, which usually controls organ size in human tissues and cells, but is dysregulated in multiple kinds of cancer. Making use of a combination of patient-donor tumor cells obtained in surgical procedures and mouse models of schwannoma, scientists revealed that after just 21 days of the drug administration, tumor growth can be strongly and significantly lowered. In addition, treatment with the Hippo pathway inhibitors led to the death of tumor cells and an overall tumor shrinkage.
Research Fellow Dr Liyam Laraba who led the study said: “We are really excited to show that blocking the Hippo pathway is highly effective in preventing schwannoma and meningioma growth. These drugs are well tolerated in our models and we hope that our work can stimulate and accelerate the use of these inhibitors in clinical trials.”
