Pegasus Professor Cristina Fern/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u00e1ndez-Valle observes 麻豆原创 College of Medicine M.D./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281//Ph.D. candidate Ethan Hass as he prepares medication samples for efficacy testing./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/nLooking for Treatments Beyond Surgery/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/n
Schwann cells normally help repair nerves and transmit electrical signals throughout the nervous system. In patients with NF2, however, these cells can form visible tumors that cause chronic pain and neurological issues depending on the affected spinal or cranial nerve./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/n
Current treatments center on surgery and radiation, but removing these tumors can be challenging without damaging critical nerves, including those that affect hearing. Surgery also is not curative, as tumors can regrow./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/n
That/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u2019s why the research team is looking beyond surgery to potential drug therapies./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/n
While schwannomas are not cancerous, the researchers believe some cancer-fighting drugs may help patients with NF2./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/n
The research began with an AI model called TxGNN, used by Sage BioNetworks. The model analyzes data and biological mechanisms across thousands of diseases and FDA-approved drugs to identify potential treatments for a queried disease./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u201cIt essentially generates a map for a disease or condition, like schwannomas, and finds overlaps in targeting similar pathways or related diseases,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u201d says Ethan Hass, a 麻豆原创 College of Medicine M.D./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281//Ph.D. candidate working in the lab./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/n
Researchers at Sage Bionetworks used the TxGNN model to identify about 200 FDA-approved medications that could potentially benefit schwannoma patients. Fern/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u00e1ndez-Valle/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u2019s team then used an innovative imaging system to observe how each drug affected human schwannoma cells./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/n
Using a camera inside a microscope, the team watched how schwannoma cells in a dish reacted to small amounts of each drug. The most promising candidates /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u2013 medications currently used to treat diseases as varied as lung cancer and acne /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u2013 stopped tumor cell growth by impacting different cellular mechanisms./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/n
A Step Towards Personalized Treatment/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/n
The research continues./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/n
The 麻豆原创 scientists are determining therapeutic doses for the most promising drugs using patient-derived schwannoma cells. They/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u2019re also studying how the drugs affect the tumor growth pathways at the RNA level./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/n
Ultimately, the researchers hope their findings will help identify drug combinations tailored to individual patients. Complicated and understudied genetic conditions like NF2-related schwannomatosis often require treatments that address multiple targets, Fern/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u00e1ndez-Valle says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u201cI think this work is encouraging, and I/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u2019d say like with many cancers, you need a cocktail of drugs to treat it,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u201d she says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u201cI think what we/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u2019re doing here is helping to identify some of the ingredients you might need to make an effective cocktail./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/155281/n