Pharmacotherapy for pontine glioma

Using brain tumor samples collected from children in the United States and Europe, an international team of scientists found that the drug panobinostat and similar gene regulating drugs may be effective at treating diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG), an aggressive and lethal form of pediatric cancer...

They found that drugs called histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors consistently slowed DIPG growth. Several of these drugs block histone deacetylases, a group of enzymes that regulate genes by removing chemical tags, called acetyl groups, from histone proteins. The scientists saw similar results when they genetically blocked individual histone deacetylases in the DIPG cells.

The scientists also analyzed the genes of each cell line. After reviewing the genetic and screening data they decided to focus on panobinostat, a drug designed to block multiple types of histone deacetylases. In petri dishes, they showed that panobinostat inhibited the growth of 12 out of 16 DIPG cell lines. When the scientists placed DIPG cells in the pons area of mice they found that systemic injections of panobinostat inhibited DIPG growth and extended survival.

http://www.dddmag.com/news/2015/05/study-points-possible-treatment-lethal-pediatric-cancer

http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Children_s_Health_200/Existing-Drug-May-Treat-the-Deadliest-Childhood-Brain-Tumor.shtml

http://scienceblog.com/78209/study-points-to-possible-treatment-for-lethal-pediatric-brain-cancer/#3H4bOMqXrXQoKHe4.97

Catherine S Grasso, Yujie Tang, Nathalene Truffaux, Noah E Berlow, Lining Liu et al.

Functionally defined therapeutic targets in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma.  Nature Medicine

May 4, 2015