Brain Tumors and the Blood-Brain Barrier

[M4Y0U]

Brain tumors, unfortunately, do not respond to any known treatment. The blood-brain barrier performs a neuroprotective function by tightly controlling access to the brain; consequently it also impedes access of proteins as well as pharmacological agents to cerebral tissues. In order to treat brain tumors, it is therefore imperative to find vectors that can penetrate the blood–brain barrier and permit medications to do their part. Richard Béliveau and his team have recently shown that melanotransferrin is one such vector. They are currently studying the possibility of employing melanotransferrin as a new delivery system to target drugs directly to the brain.

Another major obstacle in the treatment of all types of cancer is the phenomenon of multiple drug resistance associated with an increase in P-glycoprotein, a protein transporter which shuttles drugs out of the cell. This protein is strongly expressed in cerebral capillaries, thereby increasing the impermeability of the blood-brain barrier to pharmacological agents. The laboratory studies P-glycoprotein’s mode of action and its interaction with other proteins, such as caveolin, in order to establish its biological function at the level of cerebral capillaries for the treatment of brain tumors.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

Yeah the blood brain barrier is an impressive device although it's not fool proof since some things such as bacteria not intended to pass through it are small enough to get through.  I wish they would of taught us more about it in school but they didn't and just gave it a passing mention.  It's kind of like our world history teacher in high school didn't even tell us about how cats were an important thing in Egyptian religion and so I brought it up to make sure at least the people in my class would find out because I lived in a town with a lot of people who hate cats.

[M4Y0U]

Yes targeted treatments is the way to go. I will an analogy here with military weapons. Chemotherapy and radiations are like a napalm bombardments and recent advanced targeted treatments are like a laser guided missile to will go right at the target. Problem with that is they need to find a way to destroy the stem cells of the cancers and they are very resistant and they must have no impact on healthy cells so this is a good challenge and they are now testing a lot in laboratories to find such chemical that could do the job!

Good article about Tamoxifen you gave me there. It always amazes me to see the progress going on. That's mostly why i study a lot of biology and some biochemistry now by myself ( i have a knowledge folder i built i have everything on everything lol almost every books in pdf on every discipline like ranging from physics to biology, psychology, pharmacology, math, even finance lol well everything you can imagine lol. I released a torrent of an old version of it but i think it can be a good starting point to build a Knowledge folder for you if you don't have one. The torrent i made is called The Knowledge Folder. It's only 11 or 13 gig ( now its 100gig on my computer lol ) you have many documentaries and everything you need to learn everything about everything. And i intend to go at the university first to do biology and then biochemistry and maybe some other... I want to spend my life in a university and try make money there. I think it's a good place to be whether youre a teacher or a researchers. Can't wait to start and get that P.h.D.

[ILADVOCATE]

Yes that is important research. I believe some current treatments work by reducing the amount of blood vessels in the tumor. Tamoxifen is one anti-cancer drug that is in research as a mood stabilizer as well:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080303190626.htm
Obviously given the severe side effects of chemotherapy and radiation they need to continue researching newer and safer treatments that are more targeted and stop the cancer cells not only from metastisizing but from reappearing to begin with. However, unless the cancer is caused by other means I would believe research to turn off the gene that activates the growth to begin with would be the most effective although that is many years from now in research and understanding.