Brain tumors found in both humans and dogs have been found to have a similar genetic makeup, new research says.
Researchers from the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (VMBS), Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital said in a study published in the journal Science Acta Neuropathologica earlier this week that there are similarities found in meningiomas — the most common type of brain tumor in humans and dogs.
“The discovery that natural canine tumors closely resemble their human counterparts opens numerous avenues for investigating the biology of these challenging tumors,” said Dr. Akash Patel, associate professor of neurosurgery at Baylor School of Medicine and principal investigator at the Jan and Dan Duncan Institute for Neurological Research (Duncan NRI). at Texas Children’s Hospital, Texas A&M said.
He added: “It also provides opportunities to develop and study new treatments applicable to both humans and dogs.”
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Dog.
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A stray dog found with a tumor larger than its head has the mass removed and finds a home
For the purposes of the study, researchers examined 62 canine meningiomas from 27 dog breeds. The research marked “the largest study to date of gene expression profiles of canine meningiomas,” according to Texas A&M.
In addition to Patel, others who helped with the study included Dr. Jonathan Levine, VMBS professor and head of the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences (VSCS), and Dr. Tiemo Klisch, assistant professor at Baylor School of Medicine and principal investigator at Duncan NRI . VSCS assistant professor Dr. Beth Boudreau, meanwhile, has been a “key contributor,” Texas A&M said.
Previous work by Levine, Boudreau and others at VMBS found genetic similarities between gliomas, which are the second most common type of brain tumor in humans and dogs.
“We ended up agreeing to give Patel the dog tumor samples we’d been working on archiving for years to see if he could isolate the RNA, which isn’t always easy to do,” Levine said in a statement. “He was able to produce this very robust data set that showed a similar pattern structure to human tumors. Our team also provided Dr. Patel with key clinical outcome data, including responses to specific treatments.”
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A man hugs a dog.
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Looking ahead, the researchers now hope to create clinical trials to advance their research, although they could take several years to plan and fund, Texas A&M reported.
“We’re really interested in creating success for human and animal medicine,” Levine said. “For example, through clinical trials, we hope to give dog owners access to a therapy that is not available anywhere else in the world.”
“At the same time, this information will also inform the next step of human trials,” the researcher continued.
Added Levine: “One of the strengths of this project is that we already have all this genetic data that we can use to decide what might be a good treatment. The first part set us up very well to work on the second part.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education