Treatment of stomach cancer will help violation of its innervation
Botulinum toxin was successfully used against stomach cancer
Copper News based on materials from Columbia University: Severing Nerves May Shrink Stomach CancersA study by American scientists has shown that a violation of the conduction of nerve impulses in the stomach area can significantly slow down the growth of neoplasms in the organ.
The results of this work are published in the journal Science Translational Medicine (Zhao et al., Denervation suppresses gastric tumorigenesis).
Stomach cancer ranks fourth in the world among malignant neoplasms and is the second most common cause of death from cancer: the five-year survival rate of patients with stomach cancer is less than 25%.
Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center have studied the role of nerve impulses in the development of malignant tumors of the stomach. Mice with cancerous tumors of this organ were divided into three groups. Animals from the first group were dissected vagus nerve fibers in the stomach area by surgical operation (vagotomy), mice from the second group were cut only nerves innervating one half of the organ, and animals from the third group were injected with botulinum toxin – a neurotoxin produced by Clostridium botulinum bacteria.
As the results of the experiment showed, in rodents from the first and third groups with a complete violation of gastric innervation, tumor growth significantly slowed down, and in mice from the second group such a slowdown was observed only in the part of the stomach that was devoid of nerve connections.
Sections of the stomach epithelium of mice with a malignant tumor from the anterior (left) section,
the innervation of which was violated by botox injection, and the posterior (right), control – VM.
According to scientists, this is due to the fact that when nerve conduction was disrupted, acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that ensures the passage of nerve impulses from muscle tissues to the brain and back, did not enter the tumor.
Acetylcholine also stimulates cell division, therefore, according to the authors of the article, the use of botulinum toxin helped prevent the release of this neurotransmitter and slow down the growth of cancer cells of stomach tumors. According to preclinical studies, botulinum toxin injection in combination with chemotherapy increased the survival rate of animals by 35% compared with chemotherapy alone.
Studies conducted by their colleagues with the participation of 37 people also proved the effectiveness of therapy aimed at disrupting the vagus nerve in the stomach. 12 out of 13 patients who underwent the vagotomy procedure did not have a recurrence of stomach cancer, while the remaining 24 patients who did not undergo this procedure developed a new tumor in the same place some time after treatment.
Now scientists are planning to develop a drug that suppresses the work of acetylcholine receptors. Such a drug will act more effectively than vagotomy or botulinum toxin injection in the case of an invasive or simply advanced form of stomach cancer.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru22.08.2014