Build a human model of the barrier that guards the brain fluid
Drugs that reach brain tissue may still fail to reach the fluid where cancer spreads along the linings. A lab model of that second barrier would let us screen for drugs that cross it.
Leptomeningeal disease is governed by the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier at the choroid plexus, which differs from the blood-brain barrier in transporters and tight junction composition. Stem-cell-derived choroid plexus organoids that produce cerebrospinal fluid-like secretion have been reported, giving a human in vitro system for screening cerebrospinal fluid penetration and for studying how tumour cells survive in that nutrient-poor compartment.
- The brain: barrier and sanctuary · Most drugs cannot cross into the brain, so brain tumours and brain metastases lag every other site.
- Preclinical models that do not predict people · Nine in ten cancer drugs that work in mice fail in humans. Our models are the reason.
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not linked directly; found by shared links- IdeaA standard platform to get drugs into the brain: focused ultrasound plus shuttle-engineered therapeutics
Shares The brain: barrier and sanctuary, HER2-positive breast cancer, Melanoma, Non-small-cell lung cancer.
- IdeaBrain metastases included by default in every solid-tumour trial
Shares The brain: barrier and sanctuary, HER2-positive breast cancer, Melanoma, Non-small-cell lung cancer.
- IdeaTreat brain metastases as a disease with its own trials programme
Shares The brain: barrier and sanctuary, HER2-positive breast cancer, Melanoma, Non-small-cell lung cancer.
- IdeaUse the brain's own transport door to carry antibody drugs across
Shares Blood-brain barrier (BBB), The brain: barrier and sanctuary, HER2-positive breast cancer, Non-small-cell lung cancer.
- IdeaKeep a freshly removed tumour alive on a pump and test drugs in it
Shares Patient-derived organoids, Preclinical models that do not predict people.
- IdeaDeliver drugs and cells to the brain through the nose
Shares Blood-brain barrier (BBB), The brain: barrier and sanctuary.
- IdeaBuild laboratory models of the organs cancer spreads to
Shares Patient-derived organoids, Preclinical models that do not predict people.
- InstitutionRosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute, McGill University
Shares Preclinical models that do not predict people, HER2-positive breast cancer, Melanoma.