Tuesday, 18 February 2014

Halting PLD & How It Relates To Brain Cancer

By Rob Sutter


Brain cancer can occur for one of many reasons but how exactly does this condition progress, one on the outside has to wonder? Well, most of it has to do with the presence of enzymes and how they are able to trigger the condition to become more severe with time. This is the case for glioblastoma, in particular, which is regarded as the most aggressive form of the cancer in question. Can a new method come into effect, though, for the sake of halting a particular enzyme?

Futurity put forth a report that spoke about a method that could help for this purpose. The report in question referred to it as a "backdoor" approach in order to help brain cancer and one of its potential triggers. It's possible that an enzyme related to glioblastoma can be stopped, which is a great point to consider when looking at organizations like Voices against Brain Cancer. Not all of the details are clear, though, which is why a learning experience is more than helpful here.

The enzyme that was focused on was referred to as phospholipase D, though it's not just in the realm of brain cancer that this has been seen. Other types of cancers like breast and gastric have been correlated to it as well, so it goes without saying that it has seen a great deal of attention in the way of science. PLD is also responsible for the regulation of Akt, another enzyme that is integral to cancer growth. There are many more details than I would have expected to uncover before reading this report.

PLD was given a tremendous amount of focus during a study with mice, each of the subjects afflicted with glioblastoma. One would assume that simply locking Akt would aid the problem but, as the article detailed, it is a course of action that stands a great chance of creating strong actions in the body. An exaggerated immune response, for example, could come to the surface. This subject deserves focus, without question, but care is another element that shouldn't be ignored.

Professor Craig Lindsley spoke about the concept of the isoform related to Akt being targeted without bringing any kind of harm to the patient. Keep in mind that if Akt is not activated, the cancerous cells in the body die out, which is especially worthy of note when considering that the patient is not harmed as a result. Safety should be top priority when talking about any field of research. The focus given on certain enzymes, in my opinion, is one that can open up greater possibilities.




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