Nature: scientists break through the blood-brain barrier to attack tumors

February 18, 2020 / BIOON / -- the brain is like a fortress, designed to block dangerous pathogens But protection comes at a cost: when the immune system is facing a terrible threat, these barriers will interfere with the immune system, such as glioblastoma, which is a fatal brain tumor, and there are few effective treatments Yale researchers recently reported in the journal Nature that they have found a new way to circumvent the brain's natural defense system When the brain's natural defenses backfire, they let the immune system rescuers through the fort's drainage system Photo source: Akiko Iwasaki, senior nature correspondent, said: "people think that the immune system can do nothing to fight brain tumors Patients with glioblastoma cannot benefit from immunotherapy "Iwasaki is Professor Waldemar von zedtwitz of immunobiology, Professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, and a researcher at Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute Although the brain itself has no direct way to deal with cell waste, the small blood vessels arranged inside the skull can collect tissue waste and process it through the human body's lymphatic system, which can filter toxins and waste in the body In this new study, researchers are using this kind of processing system These blood vessels form shortly after birth, in part because they are stimulated by the VEGF-C gene Jean Leon Thomas, an associate professor of Neurology at Yale University and co-author of the paper, wondered if VEGF-C would increase immune response if lymphatic drainage increased Eric song, a student at Iwasaki lab, who led the study, wanted to see if VEGF-C could be specifically used to enhance the immune system's ability to monitor glioblastoma tumors The team worked together to see if introducing VEGF-C through the drainage system could specifically target brain tumors The team introduced VEGF C into the cerebrospinal fluid of glioblastoma mice and observed an increase in the response level of T cells in the brain to the tumor VEGF-C treatment significantly prolonged the survival time of mice combined with the immunosuppressive agents commonly used in immunotherapy In other words, the introduction of VEGF-C, combined with cancer immunotherapy drugs, is clearly enough to target brain tumors "These results are significant," Iwasaki said "We hope to apply this treatment to patients with glioblastoma Because the prognosis of surgery and chemotherapy for these patients is still so bleak "Reference: Akiko Iwasaki et al Vegf-c-driven linear drainage enables immunosurveillance of brain tubes, nature (2020) Doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1912-x