A jawless parasitic fish could help lead the way to more effective treatments for multiple brain ailments, including cancer, trauma and stroke.
A jawless parasitic fish could help lead the way to more effective treatments for multiple brain ailments, including cancer, trauma and stroke.
One major challenge in treating cancers and other disorders of the brain is ensuring that medicines reach their targets. A team of biomedical engineers and clinician-scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Texas at Austin borrowed molecules from the immune system of the parasitic sea lamprey to deliver anti-cancer drugs directly to brain tumors.
They published their results today (May 15, 2019) in the journal Science Advances.
Unlike most currently used medicines, which target specific features on or inside individual cells in our body’s organs and tissues, the lamprey-derived molecules take aim at a different target — the extracellular matrix, a tangled mesh of proteins and sugars that supports and surrounds all cells in the brain.
Read more at University of Wisconsin-Madison
