Key Points
New Delhi, August 2. A drug that was developed to treat pancreatic cancer has shown promise to treat medulloblastomathe most common malignant brain tumour in children...
In the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the drug triptolide, which is extracted from a vine used in traditional Chinese medicine, and its water-soluble prodrug version Minnelidewas found to increase symptom-free survival in preclinical medulloblastoma modelsall without showing signs of toxicity..
The research by Jezabel Rodriguez Blanco, Assistant Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, focused on the drug triptolide and Minnelide and discovered triptolides ability to target MYCan oncogene, or gene that has the potential to cause cancer...
Its efficacy was 100 times higher in the Group 3 tumours with extra MYC copies, Blanco said.. Further, she found that Minnelide could reduce tumour growth and the spread of cancer cells to the thin tissues that cover the brain and spinal cord, called leptomeninges...
