Questions About Cancer

Researchers at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and the Biomedical Research Centre of La Rioja has been shown in mice that AD patients may have a greater predisposition to primary brain cancers

The research, published in the scientific journal Oncogene, “will advance the understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the development of primary brain tumors, which are those that originate in the nervous system itself and no other metastasis.

CSIC researcher at the Instituto Cajal and promoting research, Ricardo Martinez Murillo, explains that “the existence of this abnormal inflammatory activity in Alzheimer’s patients suggested to us that these patients were more likely to develop brain cancer” .

“Just watching was a job, post mortem, a higher rate of incidence of these tumors among patients with AD, but not delved into the causes,” said Martinez.

To test this hypothesis, the researchers injected a carcinogen

(20 – metilcolanthreno) in the brain of transgenic mice showed the same pathological clusters of beta-amyloid peptide and brain lesions similar to Alzheimer’s patients.

“The results show that these mice, which express two genes that are mutated in some patients with a family history of Alzheimer’s, brain tumors developed faster and with higher incidence than mice in the control group, who had not modified its genes” says Martinez.

On the other hand, showed that mutant forms of p53 act as a complementary mechanism to Neuroinflammation in the generation of brain tumors in patients with Alzheimer’s. This gene regulates numerous mechanisms of proliferation and cell death plays a key role in apoptosis (programmed death) of the cell.

The work will not only learn more about Alzheimer’s disease, but advance knowledge of cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the development of primary brain tumors (those that have their origin in the nervous system), including the devastating glioblastoma .