Brian Crompton with Stephanie Meyer (left) and Kellsey Wuerthele (PHOTO: JOHN DEPUTY)
Our blood carries tiny amounts of DNA from broken-up cells. If we have cancer, some of that DNA comes from tumor cells. Studies performed with adult cancers have shown that this circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) may offer crucial clues about tumor genetic mutations and how tumors respond to treatment.
Brian Crompton, MD, with colleagues at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and elsewhere, is now working to bring ctDNA “liquid biopsies” to pediatric solid tumors as well. The researchers hope that these blood tests will eventually improve early detection, choice of treatment and monitoring of young patients with these diseases without having to sample the tumor itself. …
Ofer Levy (L) with Guzman Sanchez-Schmitz (PHOTO: MICHAEL GODERRE)
Immunization is one of modern medicine’s greatest success stories. Yet we still lack vaccines for common diseases such as HIV and respiratory syncytial virus. Other vaccines are only moderately effective, like those against tuberculosis or pertussis. The average vaccine can take a decade or more to develop, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, and vaccines that worked flawlessly in mice regularly fail in clinical trials. As a result, many companies are reluctant to enter into vaccine development.
“We need a way to rapidly assess vaccine candidates earlier in the process,” says Ofer Levy, MD, PhD, a physician-scientist in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Boston Children’s Hospital and director of the Precision Vaccines Program. “It’s simply not possible to conduct large-scale, phase 3, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies of every potential vaccine for every pathogen we want to protect against.”
In a paper published today in Frontiers in Immunology, Levy’s team describes the first modeling laboratory system for testing human immune responses to vaccines — outside the body. …
Epigenetic enzymes and lung cancer: Treating adenocarcinoma with G9a histone methyltransferase inhibitors leads to an increase in tumor cells with stem-like properties. In contrast, inhibiting histone demethylase prevents tumor growth. (SAMUEL ROWBOTHAM/BOSTON CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL)
Epigenetic therapies — targeting enzymes that alter what genes are turned on or off in a cell — are of growing interest in oncology as a way to make cancers less aggressive or less malignant. But now, at least one epigenetic therapy that had looked promising for lung cancer appears to boost the cancer stem cells that are believed to drive tumors. A study published today in Nature Communications also identifies a strategy that reduces these stem cells, curbing lung cancer in mice. …
Despite new requirements, pediatric drug trials largely aren’t getting done. (ADOBE STOCK)
The FDA requires clinical studies of new drugs in pediatric populations, since many drugs developed for use in adults are also used in children. These studies are often “post-marketing” trials after the drug is approved in adults. But an audit by researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital found that only about a third of these mandatory trials were completed within an average of seven years. As a result, most new drug labels continue to lack child-specific information, and most FDA-approved drugs remain untested in children. …
Reducing cancer proliferation: A small molecule that inactivates NUAK2, part of the Hippo/YAP pathway, reduces the number of cancerous cells in the mouse liver. (WEI-CHIEN YUAN/BOSTON CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL)
It’s known that cancer involves unchecked cell growth and that a pathway that regulates the size of organs, known as Hippo, is also involved in cancer. It’s further known that a major player in this pathway, YAP, drives many types of tumors. What’s been lacking is how to turn this knowledge into a practical cancer treatment. In a study published today in Nature Communications, researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital identify a target downstream of YAP, called NUAK2, and show that it can readily be inactivated with a small molecule.
“The Hippo pathway, and especially YAP, has been hard to target with drugs,” says senior study author Fernando Camargo, PhD, of Boston Children’s Stem Cell Research program. “This is the first demonstration of a ‘druggable’ molecule that could be targeted in any type of tumor driven by YAP.” …
ORCHESTRATING T-CELL RESPONSES: The BH4 pathway can be quieted with a small-molecule inhibitor to calm T-cell responses in autoimmune disease, or tuned up to activate T cells in cancer. (ILLUSTRATION: TIBOR KULCSAR/IMBA)
In 2013, renowned Boston Children’s Hospital pain researcher Clifford Woolf, MD, PhD, and Kai Johnsson, PhD, his fellow co-founder at Quartet Medicine, believed they held the key to non-narcotic pain relief. Woolf had shown that tetrahydrobioptrin — a protein also known as BH4 — is a primary natural modulator of neuropathic and inflammatory pain sensitivity. Quartet was founded on the premise that inhibiting BH4 production could prevent the progression of acute pain to chronic pain in millions of patients, without threat of addiction or tolerance.
With solid human genetic data and chemical biology, plus $17 million in series A funding, Quartet looked primed for success. But in the summer of 2017, toxicology studies of the company’s lead candidate revealed neurologic side effects. Hope for the promising pain drug cratered, taking Quartet with it.
Now, however, a surprising discovery about BH4 will likely rekindle interest in the once-promising pathway and could have profound implications for treating autoimmunity and cancer. In yesterday’s Nature, Woolf and his team at Boston Children’s Hospital, together with immunologists from the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna report that BH4 also functions as a kind of immunological thermostat in the body, raising and lowering the activity levels of T cells. …
Leonard Zon and Julien Ablain are finding that zebrafish can tell us a lot about cancer. (PHOTO: SHANE HURLEY/BOSTON CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL)
Zebrafish are an emerging power tool in cancer research. They can be engineered to light up when certain genes turn on — capturing the moment when a cancer is initiated. Because they breed so quickly, they lend themselves to rapid, large-scale chemical screening studies, so can help identify tumor promoters and suppressors. Now, as a new study in Science demonstrates, zebrafish can also help scientists dissect the intricate molecular pathways that underlie many cancers, and could help guide treatment strategies — in this case, for mucosal melanoma. …
Mesenchymal stem cells derived from amniotic fluid (FAUZA LAB / BOSTON CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL)
Ed. note: This is an update of a post that originally appeared in 2014.
The neural tube is supposed to close during the first month of prenatal development, forming the spinal cord and the brain. In children with spina bifida, it doesn’t close completely, leaving the nerves of the spinal cord exposed and subject to damage. The most common and serious form of spina bifida, myelomeningocele, sets a child up for lifelong disability, causing complications such as hydrocephalus, leg paralysis, and loss of bladder and bowel control.
A growing body of research from Boston Children’s Hospital, though still in animal models, suggests that spina bifida could be repaired at least partially early in pregnancy, through intrauterine injections of a baby’s own cells. …
Toddlers with oropharyngeal dysphagia who were treated with a PPI had a nearly doubled hospitalization rate. (IMAGE: ADOBE STOCK)
A new study adds to growing concerns about a class of drugs frequently prescribed to suppress stomach acid in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Previous research has linked the use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) to an increased risk of various pulmonary and gastrointestinal infections in both adults and children. Patients treated with PPIs are also at higher risk for upper respiratory infections, pneumonia and sepsis.
A new study, published last week in JAMA Otolaryngology, suggests that use of PPIs may also raise the risk of hospitalization of infants and children with oropharyngeal dysphagia, a common swallowing disorder. The study was led by Rachel Rosen, MD, MPH and Daniel Duncan, MD at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Aerodigestive Center. …
New research on autism has found, in a mouse model, that drug treatment at a young age can reverse social impairments. But the same intervention was not effective at an older age. …
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