Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, University of California other research news

Researchers blocked expression of TGF-beta in a murine gliosarcoma model using an antisense plasmid vector. Normal brain tumor cells secrete TGF-beta, which acts as an immunosuppressive agent, allowing tumor cells to grow without being detected.

The 11 mice that received the modified glioma cells were all alive at 12 weeks, with no evidence of residual cancer, while 2 of 15 mice given a control vector and 3 of 10 mice given an interleukin-2 retroviral vector survived (p<0.001 for both comparisons). Results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ...