Cookie Settings

We use cookies to optimize our website. These include cookies that are necessary for the operation of the site, as well as those that are only used for anonymous statistic. You can decide for yourself which categories you want to allow. Further information can be found in our data privacy protection .

Essential

These cookies are necessary to run the core functionalities of this website and cannot be disabled.

Name Webedition CMS
Purpose This cookie is required by the CMS (Content Management System) Webedition for the system to function correctly. Typically, this cookie is deleted when the browser is closed.
Name econda
Purpose Session cookie emos_jcsid for the web analysis software econda. This runs in the “anonymized measurement” mode. There is no personal reference. As soon as the user leaves the site, tracking is ended and all data in the browser are automatically deleted.
Statistics

These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting and analyzing information anonymously. Depending on the tool, one or more cookies are set by the provider.

Name econda
Purpose Statistics
External media

Content from external media platforms is blocked by default. If cookies from external media are accepted, access to this content no longer requires manual consent.

Name YouTube
Purpose Show YouTube content
Name Twitter
Purpose activate Twitter Feeds

Plant Pathogen Yields Substance to Fight Neuroblastoma

No. 03 | 16/01/2008 | by (MF/Koh)

Drug treatment of neuroblastoma, a tumor of the nervous system in children, poses major problems. Therefore, scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have been searching for substances that are suitable as a basis for developing better drugs. Now they have found a candidate: HC-toxin, which is isolated from a fungal plant pathogen. The substance from the maize pathogen reprograms neuroblastoma cells in such a way that they behave almost like healthy cells again.

Normally, the fungus Helminthosporium carbonum leads to reduced harvests for maize farmers. Yet a specific constituent of the pathogen, namely HC-toxin, might be very useful for medicine. The substance is used by scientists as a basis for developing a new anti-cancer drug. HC-toxin acts on enzymes known as histone deacetylases (HDACs), which structure the packaging of the genetic material, or DNA. HDAC enzymes change, among others, the histones – proteins around which the DNA is wrapped. Alterations in the packaging of the genetic material are suspected to cause cancer or promote its spread. Therefore, scientists are studying substances that inhibit HDAC enzymes for their ability to fight malignant tumors.

Among these substances is HC-toxin, which has now been investigated by researchers of the Clinical Cooperation Unit "Pediatric Oncology" at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ). They found out that neuroblastoma cells lose several of their cancer-typical properties when under the influence of the substance: They divide less frequently, show less invasive growth and even their outside appearance resembles healthy nerve cells again. These effects were observed to be stronger than with other HDAC inhibitors investigated previously.

The effect of HC-toxin is presumably based, among other things, on the fact that it promotes the function of an important cellular "cancer brake" known as RB signaling pathway. The investigators found out that the cancer brake was much more active in tumors cells that had been treated with HC-toxin than in untreated cells. They plan to conduct further research to determine whether the substance derived from the maize pathogen is suitable for developing a new drug to fight neuroblastoma.

Neuroblastoma is the second most frequent malignant tumor in children. With an average of 150 new cases diagnosed in Germany each year, neuroblastoma constitutes about seven to eight percent of all childhood cancers. Most affected children are in preschool age, one third are diagnosed under one year of age. Although treatment has been improved over the past few years, chances of recovery from advanced stage neuroblastoma continue to be very low. In addition, the drugs being used often cause serious side effects.

Hedwig E. Deubzer, Volker Ehemann, Frank Westermann, Ralf Heinrich, Gunhild Mechtersheimer, Andreas E. Kulozik, Manfred Schwab, Olaf Witt. Histone deacetylase inhibitor Helminthosporium carbonum (HC)-toxin suppresses the malignant phenotype of neuroblastoma cells. International Journal of Cancer, DOI: 10.1002/ijc23295

With more than 3,000 employees, the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) is Germany’s largest biomedical research institute. DKFZ scientists identify cancer risk factors, investigate how cancer progresses and develop new cancer prevention strategies. They are also developing new methods to diagnose tumors more precisely and treat cancer patients more successfully. The DKFZ's Cancer Information Service (KID) provides patients, interested citizens and experts with individual answers to questions relating to cancer.

To transfer promising approaches from cancer research to the clinic and thus improve the prognosis of cancer patients, the DKFZ cooperates with excellent research institutions and university hospitals throughout Germany:

  • National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT, 6 sites)
  • German Cancer Consortium (DKTK, 8 sites)
  • Hopp Children's Cancer Center (KiTZ) Heidelberg
  • Helmholtz Institute for Translational Oncology (HI-TRON Mainz) - A Helmholtz Institute of the DKFZ
  • DKFZ-Hector Cancer Institute at the University Medical Center Mannheim
  • National Cancer Prevention Center (jointly with German Cancer Aid)
The DKFZ is 90 percent financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and 10 percent by the state of Baden-Württemberg. The DKFZ is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.

RSS-Feed

Subscribe to our RSS-Feed.

to top
powered by webEdition CMS