A widely available natural chemical could have the ability to treat some patients with medulloblastoma by starving tumours of energy, British researchers have found.
Inositol hexaphosphate, also known as IP6 or phytic acid, would be combined with chemotherapy, according to researchers at Queen Mary, University of London, UK.
The chemical is already available as a vitamin style supplement and is found in almost all plants and animals.
The latest proposal comes from a study of epigenetic changes linked to the development of the cancer. This pointed to a protein BMI1 found at high levels in the G4 sub-group of the cancer. Researchers found this enabled cancer cells to grow aggressively by changes to their metabolism.
The process was reversed by treating cells with IP6. In the laboratory study, reported in Nature Communications, IP6 was combined with cisplatin, leading to an increased destruction of tumour cells in laboratory mice.
Researcher Professor Sylvia Marino said: “G4 medulloblastoma is the least understood of all subgroups, despite being the most common and associated with poor prognosis. We have identified a novel way that this type of medulloblastoma is able to adapt its metabolism and grow uncontrollably.
“Significantly, we have also shown how this energy supply can be blocked. These exciting results bring hope of developing new targeted treatments for patients with this aggressive paediatric brain tumour.”
The research was funded with £187,000 donated from a fund collected for a 13-year-old boy Ollie Gardiner, who lost his life to the disease four years ago and donated to Brain Tumour Research.
Hugh Adams, from the charity, said: “These very exciting results reveal a new way for epigenetics to control metabolism within tumour cells. Clinical trials are now required to test the ability of combining IP6 with chemotherapy to treat G4 medulloblastoma, offering promise to a particularly vulnerable group of patients.
“It is great news and brings some much-needed hope for the future. There is still some way to go but we hope that a clinical trial could be up and running in the near future.”
Inositol treatment inhibits medulloblastoma through suppression of epigenetic-driven metabolic adaptation. Nature Communications 12 April 2021
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