Funded by The Little Princess Trust and administered by CCLG
Lead investigator: Dr Madhumita Dandapani, University of Nottingham
Award: £99,449.08
Awarded August 2019
As there are still poor survival rates for children with glial brains tumours such as paediatric high grade glioma (pHGG) and ependymoma, further research is crucial to help improve the outcomes for children with these types of cancer. One potential treatment strategy is to develop ‘small molecular inhibitors’, which are a type of drug small enough to enter the tiny tumour cells and be programmed to stop their damaging action by targeting a distinct metabolic pathway. For example they could target a pathway which would effectively ‘starve a brain tumour to death’. However, before a drug can be developed, much more needs to be understood about the types of metabolic pathways used specifically by glial brain tumour cells.
Dr Dandapani’s study will contribute to this by exploring how key Amino Acid (AA) metabolic pathways are altered in pHGG and ependymoma brain tumours. AAs are the building blocks of proteins and are essential for the function of all cells. There is growing evidence that some of the AA pathways are altered in glial tumours, but currently we don’t understand how. Dr Dandapani’s team will analyse existing databases, identify specific changes by looking at tissue under the microscope, and measure the changes in amounts of AAs by using cutting-edge laboratory techniques. This new knowledge can then be used to help identify key pathways which could be potential targets to design or select existing small molecular inhibitor drugs, enabling new, less toxic treatment options for children with these types of brain tumour.