Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University have discovered that a substance called Vacquinol-1 makes cells from glioblastoma, the most aggressive type of brain tumour, literally explode. When mice were given the substance, which can be given in tablet form, tumour growth was reversed and survival was prolonged. The study was partly performed at the national platform Chemical Biology Consortium Sweden (CBCS) at SciLifeLab. The findings are published in the journal Cell.
Publication:
Vulnerability of glioblastoma cells to catastrophic vacuolization and death induced by a small molecule
Satish Srinivas Kitambi, Enrique M Toledo, Dmitry Usoskin, Shimei Wee, Aditya Harisankar, Richard Svensson, Kristmundur Sigmundsson, Christina Kalderén, Mia Niklasson, Soumi Kundu, Sergi Aranda, Bengt Westermark, Lene Uhrbom, Michael Andäng, Peter Damberg, Sven Nelander, Ernest Arenas, Per Artursson, Julian Walfridsson, Karin Forsberg Nilsson, Lars G. J. Hammarström & Patrik Ernfors.
Cell, online 20 March 2014, doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2014.02.021, 10 April 2014 paper issue