HomeTrending NewsNew insight into possible relationship between cancer risk and head injury found

New insight into possible relationship between cancer risk and head injury found

 Researchers at the UCL Cancer Center have offered fundamental molecular insights into how injury can lead to the development of glioma, a relatively rare but typically aggressive type of brain tumor.

Previous studies have suggested a possible link between head injury and an increased incidence of brain tumors, but the evidence is inconclusive. The UCL team has now identified a possible mechanism to explain this link, meaning that genetic mutations acting in concert with brain tissue inflammation change the behavior of cells, making them more likely to become cancerous. Although this study was largely performed in mice, it suggests that it would be important to explore the relevance of these findings to human gliomas.

The study was led by Professor Simona Parrinello (UCL Cancer Institute), Samantha Dickson Head of Brain Cancer and Co-Director of the UK Center of Excellence for Brain Tumor Research. She said: “Our research suggests that brain trauma may contribute to an increased risk of developing brain cancer later in life.”

Gliomas are brain tumors that often arise in neural stem cells. More mature types of brain cells, such as astrocytes, were thought to be less likely to give rise to tumors. However, recent findings have shown that after injury, astrocytes can regain stem cell behavior.

Professor Parrinello and her team therefore decided to investigate whether this property could make astrocytes able to form a tumor after brain trauma using a preclinical mouse model.

Young adult brain-injured mice were injected with a substance that permanently marked astrocytes red and knocked out the function of a gene called p53 – known to play a critical role in suppressing many different types of cancer. The control group was treated in the same way, but the p53 gene was left intact. A second group of mice was subjected to p53 inactivation in the absence of injury.

Professor Parrinello said: “Normally, astrocytes are highly branched – they get their name from the stars – but we found that without p53 and only after injury, astrocytes retracted their branches and became more rounded. They weren’t quite like stem cells, but something had changed. So we let the mice age, then we looked at the cells again and saw that they had completely reverted to a stem state with markers of early glioma cells that could divide.”

This suggested to Professor Parrinell and team that mutations in certain genes act synergistically with brain inflammation that is triggered by acute injury and then increases over time during the natural aging process to make astrocytes more likely to develop cancer. This process of changing to stem cell-like behavior was actually accelerated when the mice were injected with a solution known to cause inflammation.

The team then looked for evidence to support their hypothesis in human populations. Working with Dr Alvina Lai at UCL’s Institute of Health Informatics, they consulted the electronic medical records of more than 20,000 people diagnosed with head injuries and compared brain cancer rates with controls by age, gender and socio-economic status.

They found that patients who suffered a head injury were nearly four times more likely to develop brain cancer later in life than those who had no head injury. It is important to remember that the risk of developing brain cancer is low overall, estimated at less than 1 percent over a lifetime, so even after an injury the risk remains modest.

Professor Parrinello said: “We know that normal tissues carry many mutations that seem to just sit there and have no major effects. Our findings suggest that if injury occurs in addition to these mutations, a synergistic effect is created. Basal inflammation is low in the young brain, so mutations appear to be kept in check even after severe brain injury. However, after aging, our work in mice suggests that inflammation increases throughout the brain, but more intensely at the site of earlier injury. This can reach a certain threshold beyond which the mutation now begins to manifest itself.”

Read Now :<strong>Bihar Cabinet Approves $50,000 to Develop Fog Warning System with US-NCAR</strong>

[responsivevoice_button buttontext="Listen This Post" voice="Hindi Female"]

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

RELATED ARTICLES

Trending News

Global Warming Slowing Earth’s Rotation: Clocks May Need Adjustment

A recent study published in Nature suggests that global warming-induced polar ice melt is causing the Earth to spin...

US Military Downs Four Iranian-backed Houthi Drones Threatening Warship in Red Sea

In a recent development, the United States military announced on Wednesday that it successfully intercepted and destroyed four drones...

Danish Researchers Develop Artificial intelligence Algorithm to Predict Life Events, Including Death

Danish researchers, with the aid of artificial intelligence and data from millions of individuals, have crafted an algorithm capable...

Design Flaw in Francis Scott Key Bridge Led to Collapse, Highlighting Larger Safety Concerns for US Bridges

Engineers have identified a significant design flaw in the structure of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, which led to...