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How to Turn Cancer Into Brain Cells
How to Turn Cancer Into Brain Cells
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0:00
If I could add more of any cell to my body,
0:02
there are a lot of good choices, but I’d want more brain cells.
0:05
And if I could get rid of any kind of cell from the human body in general,
0:10
my first choice would be cancer cells.
0:11
Which is why I’m so excited about this research
0:14
that literally turns horrible cancer cells into amazing brain cells!
0:17
We’re on the road to making some of the deadliest stuff on earth less deadly,
0:23
and in return we get more functional brain cells.
0:26
Take that, cancer!
0:27
[♪ INTRO]
0:31
There are a lot of cancers that used to be a death sentence.
0:34
But with modern screening practices and the triple threat of surgery, chemotherapy,
0:39
and radiation, many people live years beyond an initial cancer diagnosis.
0:44
Glioblastoma is not one of those cancers.
0:47
It has a median survival time of 15-18 months after diagnosis.
0:52
Partly because it’s especially hard to treat.
0:55
It grows in this really hard to reach area, behind a wall of bone... AKA your skull.
1:01
Plus, if you manage to breach that wall, so much of the stuff behind it is critical.
1:07
You don’t want to take out the part of your brain that stores all of your memories
1:11
or keeps your balance while you move around unless you really have to.
1:15
While that makes surgery harder, it’s less of a problem for chemotherapy,
1:19
which can go through your blood, naturally circulating to your brain anyway.
1:24
The issue with chemo is a little thing called the blood-brain barrier.
1:27
See, if anything manages to make its way into your bloodstream,
1:31
your body still has some defenses against letting it into your brain.
1:35
You have a tightly-packed layer of cells that prevents certain large molecules
1:39
from flooding your brain. …And that means fewer chemotherapy options.
1:44
Then you’re left with radiotherapy, which might entail
1:47
daily localized doses of radiation for a few months.
1:51
This kills your cells by damaging their DNA.
1:53
Considering the limitations of cancer treatment in your brain compared with
1:57
the rest of your body, this combo of surgery,
1:59
chemo, and radiation is often not enough.
2:02
Some of the cancer cells usually survive.
2:04
And glioblastoma is almost always deadly.
2:07
But maybe, just maybe, there’s a way we can make those cancer cells
2:11
that remain less deadly… by making them more like regular brain cells.
2:15
Now, when I say “regular brain cells,” that can mean a few different things.
2:19
You’ve got your neurons signalling away and
2:21
you’ve also got glia acting as your brain’s immune cells.
2:24
Each of these cells started out as neural stem cells
2:27
and turned into neurons and glia thanks to molecules like cAMP.
2:31
Normally, those new brain cells will then go off to perform healthy brain functions.
2:36
No cancer. No worries.
2:37
Well, like worrying is actually like a literal function of your brain,
2:42
so maybe just no cancer.
2:44
Except when things go awry.
2:46
After stem cells have differentiated into glia,
2:49
those glial cells can start replicating out of control to form glioblastomas.
2:54
This is something we’re desperately trying to
2:56
reverse in laboratories across the world.
2:58
Several research teams have attempted therapies to get these glioblastoma cells
3:02
to go back to their pre-cancer selves …with limited success.
3:06
So a research group at UCLA set their sights on nudging those glioblastoma cells
3:11
back into their previous, non-lethal life stages.
3:14
With a not-so-novel step one: radiation.
3:18
But before we can explain how they’re working on solving
3:20
this incredibly difficult problem, it’s time for a quick ad.
3:24
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3:25
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3:29
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3:32
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3:35
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3:39
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3:58
Brilliant’s also given our viewers 20% off an annual Premium subscription,
4:02
which gives you unlimited daily access to everything on Brilliant.
4:06
From previous work, the UCLA group knew that the glioblastoma cells
4:10
left behind after radiation were in a more stem cell-like state.
4:15
So they irradiated glioblastoma cells, and then added a cAMP analog.
4:20
Which is just a molecule very similar to cAMP.
4:22
And it worked!
4:23
The previously cancerous cells treated with radiation
4:27
followed by the cAMP analog looked a lot like neurons.
4:31
They had that characteristic spindly shape
4:33
and they were creating proteins normally only found in neurons.
4:37
They seemed like they were once again law-abiding citizens of Braintopia.
4:41
But we don’t quite have the data to say they were just like their former selves.
4:45
And even if we did, there’s a bigger problem:
4:48
this cAMP analog has a pretty short half-life.
4:51
Basically, it would get broken down before
4:54
much of it could even reach the glioblastoma.
4:56
To get around this problem, the research team tried boosting
4:59
an enzyme that makes cAMP instead.
5:02
After all, the outcome should be the same: more cAMP.
5:06
And we already have a tried and true way of doing that.
5:09
It’s a molecule with a longer half life than cAMP.
5:12
And it can cross the blood-brain barrier.
5:14
It’s called forskolin.
5:16
When the same research team irradiated cells and added forskolin to the mix,
5:20
it had pretty much the same effect as treating with radiation plus the cAMP analog:
5:25
neuron-like shapes and proteins.
5:28
Plus they were no longer dividing like they had been!
5:30
Which brought us even closer to turning glioblastomas into regular brain cells.
5:35
They definitely were not growing tumors anymore.
5:38
So it was time to take these lessons out of the controlled
5:40
environment of a dish and into real living animals.
5:43
When they tested out this new radiation/forskolin combo treatment on mice
5:48
with glioblastoma, it increased the average mouse’s survival
5:52
from 36 days to 129 days!
5:55
That’s more than three times longer!
5:57
Which meant they had enough evidence behind them to see
6:00
how this treatment would work with human cells inside a body.
6:04
So the researchers implanted human glioblastoma cells into mouse brains.
6:08
Just inching closer to seeing how this
6:11
would work for people diagnosed with glioblastoma.
6:13
In these mice, the combo treatment reduced their glioblastoma cell count.
6:18
And the ones left over were going back to their pre-cancer ways.
6:21
But unfortunately, the incredible mouse glioblastoma results
6:25
didn’t go quite as far for human glioblastoma.
6:29
The average survival only increased a little, from 34 to 48 days.
6:33
So it kind of works at this stage, but there’s still plenty to be sorted out.
6:37
Maybe a higher dose of forskolin would do the trick.
6:40
Or maybe cAMP isn’t enough on its own to
6:42
properly differentiate stem cells into neurons.
6:45
After all, when your brain is developing, cAMP works alongside
6:49
a bunch of other small signaling proteins.
6:52
So we might need an even combo-y-er combo treatment.
6:55
Where the research stands right now,
6:57
we have an awesome new treatment for mice with glioblastoma.
7:01
It does the unthinkable and trades your least favorite cells
7:05
for pretty close to the best possible alternatives.
7:07
But we’re still a few steps away from seeing that happen in your body or mine.
7:12
Which gives us some time to figure out what
7:14
we would do with the extra brain power.
7:17
[♪ OUTRO]
