Korean Researchers Open New Horizon in Brain Cancer Treatment with 5-Year Survival Rate of 7%

Published 03 Nov.2021 10:17(KST)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] Domestic scientists have developed a platform necessary for creating treatments for the intractable disease brain cancer. By observing the interaction between glioblastoma and microglia, the brain's immune cells, using a small cell chip, they can assess the efficacy of drugs, which is expected to accelerate the development of treatments.

The Korea Basic Science Institute (KBSI) announced on the 3rd that Dr. Kim Jeong-ah's research team from the Research Equipment Development Department, in collaboration with Professor Lee Won-jong's team at Incheon National University, succeeded in developing a drug efficacy evaluation platform that can be used for regulating the immune activation of microglia?cells that play a crucial role in the growth and treatment of brain cancer?and for developing drugs that promote this activation.

Glioblastoma is a brain cancer originating from glial cells in the brain and accounts for 80% of primary malignant brain tumors, making it the most common and severe form of tumor. Despite surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, the 5-year survival rate is less than 7%, making it a representative tumor that is difficult to overcome.

The research team explained that the significance of this study lies in opening a new horizon for brain cancer treatment by focusing not only on the cancer cells themselves but also on improving the immune-oncology treatment environment of microglia by simultaneously regulating various types of cells within the tumor microenvironment with a single drug. Microglia usually remain inactive but perform phagocytosis or various immune functions when harmful substances appear. Recently, microglia have attracted attention for their role in monitoring the brain's surroundings and maintaining homeostasis, protecting and enhancing brain activity, and regulating diseases.

These cells function not only in brain protection and recovery but also in inhibiting tumor growth. However, in certain environments, they may attack normal cells or support tumor growth. For effective brain cancer treatment, it is crucial to develop a platform that helps understand the interaction between brain cancer cells and microglia and to develop drugs that can enhance immune activation to inhibit tumor growth.

The research team manufactured drugs by loading microRNA, a key regulator of gene expression in the human body, into extracellular vesicles that can regulate the interaction between brain cancer cells and microglia. Extracellular vesicles serve as carriers that safely transport microRNA to desired locations within the body and are useful drug delivery vehicles capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, which is difficult for drugs to penetrate.

Among many types of microRNA, microRNA-124 was confirmed to play an important role in regulating the progression of brain cancer. MicroRNA-124 not only suppresses tumor growth, migration, and metastasis in glioblastoma but also inhibits the activation of microglia that supports tumor growth.

The efficacy of the drug developed by the research team was verified in a three-dimensional cell chip that mimics the brain environment where brain cancer and microglia interact, rather than at the single-cell level. Culturing cells in a 3D environment similar in function and characteristics to the actual tumor environment allows for highly accurate evaluation of drug candidate toxicity and efficacy. Through this platform, the morphology and movement of cultured cells can be observed and analyzed, and real-time confirmation of drug efficacy is possible. Additionally, the activation level of immune-oncology treatment cells arising from cell-to-cell interactions could be predicted.

Dr. Kim stated, “The role of microglia in the progression and treatment of brain cancer is very significant. Developing a biomimetic platform that enhances immune activation and enables accurate drug efficacy evaluation by regulating the environment interacting with cancer is very important.” She added, “As a follow-up study, we are also developing an AI-based imaging analysis method that can efficiently analyze large amounts of imaging data.”