Excessive accumulation of fluid in the brain can be prevented by inhibiting glutamate transport to prolong survival. Online in Nature Medicine, scientists describe a mouse model of glioma, and point to a potential new way of reducing the mortality associated with these types of tumours.
Neuronal death and brain edema are hallmarks of human malignant brain tumours. Ilker Eyüpoglu and his colleagues now show that inhibiting the glutamate transporter xCT by pharmacological or genetic means in vivo blocks neurodegeneration, reduces edema and prolongs survival in mice. Author contact: Ilker Eyüpoglu (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany)
E-mail: eyupoglu@gmx.net Nicolai Savaskan (ETH and University Zürich, Switzerland)
E-mail: savaskan@gmx.net Abstract available online. (C) Nature Medicine press release.
Message posted by: Trevor M. D'Souza
|