Author: Merentsova Anastasia
Translator: Issabayeva Madina
Copy editor: Kigbaeva Kamila
According to statistics, approximately 40 percent of lung cancer patients are metastasized to the brain, resulting in a sharp decline in life expectancy. The cause of targeted brain damage was still poorly understood.
Scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine (North Carolina, United States of America) in their study found that nicotine favors the formation of secondary centers of tumor growth in the brain as a result of the spread of cancer cells from the primary heart - lungs.
For example, a team of scientists examined 281 lung cancer patients in their later stages and found that smokers were much more at risk of developing brain tumors than patients who had never smoked or had broken the habit.
Scientists then discovered using a mouse model that nicotine enhances metastasis in the brain by transcending the blood-brain barrier and altering M2-type microglia (a specialized class of glial cells in the central nervous system) that supports tumor growth.
Scientists were also trying to find drugs that could reverse the effects of nicotine. One such substance was parthenolide, a sesquiterpene lactone found in nature and found in plants of the genus pyrethrum (perennial herbivorous plants of the family astral, or complex colored). He was able to block nicotine-induced metastases in the brain of rodents with lung cancer.
The authors are confident that parthenolide will provide a new approach to combating brain metastasis, especially for cancer patients who smoke or have recently given up, so in the future researchers are planning to start clinical trials of this drug.
According to scientists, nicotine has a profound and long-term effect on the progression of metastasis into the brain. Cancer patients should not only give up smoking, but also be careful when using nicotine substitution products during the smoking-free process.
Source: https://rupress.org/jem/article-lookup/
