Editorial Cite This: ACS Chem. Neurosci. 2018, 9, 5−5
pubs.acs.org/chemneuro
Special Issue on Precision Medicine for Brain Cancer in ACS Chemical Neuroscience
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growth factor receptor also enabled selective, long-lasting imaging of brain tumors in vivo (Jiang et al., DOI: 10.1021/ acschemneuro.7b00111). Furthermore, virtual drug combination trials may be of use to identify the right combination therapeutics for tumor treatment (Barrette et al., DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.7b00197) to avoid tumor escape from drug effects. Drug kinetics must also be optimized in future treatments to ensure optimal efficacy. A review of this important field is included in this volume (Tonge, DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.7b00185). Taken together, the scientific reports and reviews in this Special Issue in ACS Chemical Neuroscience are focused to promote future precision treatments, by improving patient stratification as well as identification of the right medication, or combination of medications, delivered by a modality that minimizes deleterious effects.
he brain synchronizes billions of cells to guide physiological and psychological function which integrally define each of us as individuals. Malignant tumors of brain cells alter the functional landscape of the brain, resulting in specific molecular abnormalities that are deadly in both adults and children. For instance, the current survival data show that adults diagnosed with glioblastoma (GBM) have an approximate 5% chance to survive 5 years; 20% of children diagnosed with high grade glioma survive 5 years (Mochizuki et al., DOI: 10.1021/ acschemneuro.7b00388). Despite intense research efforts in recent years to improve therapies, the patient outlook remains grim. Our goal in the production of this Special Issue of ACS Chemical Neuroscience was to compose a volume that showcased novel analytical and imaging strategies that may promote future precision medicine for brain cancer targeted to individual genomic and/or phenotypic attributes of tumor biology. Precision medicine may be defined as delivery of the right treatment, to the right patient, at the right time and dose, without deleterious side effects. This focus encompasses indepth analyses of individual differences in tumor biology with the goal to develop precision therapeutics for brain cancers. The contributions found in this volume have relevance to the worldwide precision medicine for brain cancer effort and include strategies to target glioma stem cells, a heavily resistant subset of brain tumor cells (Daniele et al., DOI: 10.1021/ acschemneuro.7b00023). Large-scale molecular studies of brain cancers have had success in identifying genetic factors relevant to GBM. Complementary to these genomic studies, reports and reviews on variant proteomics of glioma stem cells (Mostovenko and co-workers, DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.7b00165; DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.7b00362), glycomics of brain cancers (Veillon et al., DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.7b00271), and single-cell neurometabolomics (Qi et al., DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.7b00304) point to new technologies with the power to uncover relevant mechanisms of action underlying tumorigenesis as well as facilitate early diagnoses. Metabolite studies in glioma patients by noninvasive magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (Li et al., DOI: 10.1021/ acschemneuro.7b00286) yielded new optimized recommendations. A molecular epidemiological investigation of the variant proteins by use of the Cancer Genome Atlas and M.D. Anderson Cancer GBM and low grade glioma data sets by application of statistical methods implicated 10 proteins linked to poorer survival in brain cancer. Systemic delivery of chemotherapeutics often results in offtarget toxicity, and effective drug delivery to the brain is notoriously challenging due to the blood-brain barrier. The approaches to deliver drugs by epidermal growth factor receptor-targeted nanosyringes (Nilewski et al., DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.7b00138) and the conjugation of the chemotherapy medication Temozolomide to a hydrophilic polymer structure (Skinner et al., DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.7b00168) are two novel approaches to improve drug delivery to tumors. Bioluminescence probes targeted to the epidermal © 2018 American Chemical Society
Carol L. Nilsson, Guest Editor
Department of Experimental Medical Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Kathryn A. Cunningham, Associate Editor
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Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Center for Addiction Research, University of Texas, Galveston, Texas, United States
AUTHOR INFORMATION
ORCID
Carol L. Nilsson: 0000-0002-2838-8751 Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the authors and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
Special Issue: Precision Medicine in Brain Cancer Published: January 17, 2018 5
DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.7b00530 ACS Chem. Neurosci. 2018, 9, 5−5
