Potential glioblastoma treatment has roots in UCLA graduate research

A potential new treatment for glioblastoma that recently received approval for clinical trials not only was developed by three UCLA faculty members but also traces its roots back to 2005, when one of the researchers was a UCLA graduate student.The oral medication, a small molecule called ERAS-801, targets a rogue gene found in approximately 60% of people with the aggressive form of brain cancer. Developed by UCLA professors David Nathanson, Michael Jung and Dr. Timothy Cloughesy, the drug would provide a  complement to existing treatments — surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.In December, ERAS-801 received a go-ahead from the FDA for testing in human subjects. But research on the new drug dates back to 2005, when Nathanson was a UCLA doctoral candidate. At the time, he was studying the function of mutated epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR, a protein that drives the growth and division of cells.By 2013, Nathanson had joined the UCLA faculty and formed his own lab. Working with Cloughesy, a UCLA professor of clinical neurology and of molecular and medical pharmacology, he began to learn more about how the EGFR gene regulates critical aspects of brain tumor metabolism.  “Our therapeutic choices today are completely unacceptable,” Cloughesy said. “We have used radiation and chemotherapy for glioblastoma over the last 20 years without identifying other meaningful approaches since. We want to change this disease. It’s really important for us to know that if th i...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news