2-HG on the brain (tumor)
A Harvard Medical School team has shown that a specialized MRI technique can noninvasively diagnose patients with isocitrate dehydrogenase 1-mutant gliomas by detecting a key metabolite produced by the tumors.1 Although few imaging centers have the resources needed to adopt the method for routine diagnostic applications, Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc. plans to use it to study the biology of the isocitrate dehydrogenase 1-mutant gliomas and monitor the response to glioma therapies the company has in preclinical development.
In normal tissues, isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) plays a role in glucose metabolism by catalyzing the conversion of isocitrate to a-ketoglutarate. IDH1 and a related enzyme, IDH2, are mutated in about 70% of brain cancers and 25% of adult leukemias.2 The mutated enzymes also occur in a smaller percentage of other solid tumors. The current method of diagnosing IDH1-mutant glioma requires a biopsy...