A postdoctoral fellow at Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School identified a genetic protein involved in the development of glioblastoma, a common and aggressive brain cancer.
Regina Golan-Gerstl’s discovery could help create new diagnosis and treatment options for more than 20,000 Americans diagnosed with brain cancer each year. The Israel Cancer Research Fund supported the research, which detected higher than normal levels in some protein genes within glioblastoma samples.
In a laboratory study, researchers injected mice with gliobastoma cells, causing the mice to develop large tumors. But when the researchers reduced the levels of the protein gene, hnRNP A2/B1, the mice developed small tumors or no tumors.
“These results suggest that hnRNP A2/B1 is… a gene that… probably directly contributes to glioblastoma development,” said Dr. Rotem Karni, whose laboratory was used in the discovery, according to Israel National News.
“Down-regulating hnRNP A2/B1 levels in glioblastoma cells should be considered as a new strategy for glioblastoma therapy,” Karni said.