Anti-psychotic medications shows new hope against glioblastoma

A new research conducted at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has found that FDA-approved anti-psychotic drugs proves to have potential capacity of killing tumor, the most aggressive initial form of brain cancer, glioblastoma. The research was published in online edition of scientific journal Oncotarget. Here the researching team has been using technology platform called shRNA to find out how each of the gene in the human genome contributes to glioblastoma growth. With the proper knowledge it might become possible to control this growth. The lead researcher, Clark C. Chen, MD, PhD, vice-chairman, UC San Diego, School of Medicine, division of neurosurgery states that, “ShRNAs are invaluable tools in the study of what genes do. They function like molecular erasers. We can design these 'erasers' against every gene in the human genome. These shRNAs can then be packaged into viruses and introduced into cancer cells. If a gene is required for glioblastoma growth and the shRNA erases the function of that gene, then the cancer cell will either stop growing or die.”