Below is a transcript of our conversation with Osheen Dubey and Nadia Khiabani
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas, and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty. Last time, we learned about two CMU researchers, and their work focused on glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer. More now with Osheen Dubey and Nadia Khiabani, as we hear about how Osheen's genetic treatment and Nadia's delivery system could one day be used to combat other neurological disorders like Alzheimer's or Huntington's. They also told me that the aim is to have their work become adaptable to treatments for other forms of cancer…
And you mention Huntington's and Alzheimer's when you're talking about the glioblastoma that you're working directly with here. Are there other forms of brain cancer that you're beginning to suspect that this may also have an impact in terms of a treatment, a way to have what you are applying to this be able to be applied to other forms of brain cancer.
Nadia Khiabani:
Yeah, so for example, what Ocean does here is she used the genes like to manipulate the genes and like for that manipulation, we need kind of like a delivery system to take it inside the brain. Like imagine like having the sending the mails, okay, so for example, when you are sending the mails, like it has to be delivered at the specific location that you want. But if it doesn't like instead of your address, it goes to a neighbor's address, like everything will mess up. Okay. So, and it also happens like what you want inside that delivery package. Like here we use like the gene therapy. You can use like other kind of like, for example, chemotherapy drugs, like or like other like naturally drugs that you think that it's going to affect like positive. So, you can put that inside that package and like you directly send it. to that part of the brain that it has the problem. So, it can be applied to most of the, not only like for example here we are just doing the brain cancer. The exact same system can be delivered like to the breast cancer or like cervical cancer or like any other cancer or like for example in our case that we are mostly focused on the neuroscience. like stuff. So, it can be applied for the Alzheimer's or Huntington and like other diseases as well.
DN:
Are they all the same sets of genes that you start with then, Osheen? Or is there a different configuration or greater, lesser types of genes that go into the combination? If we're looking at here specifically, again, the glioblastoma versus then how you're taking this and adapting it to address Huntington's or Alzheimer's?
Osheen Dubey:
Yeah, definitely. It would be a different set of genes because normally the first step is to identify the genes. So, through literature research, like we figure out that, okay, these are some of the genes that could be potential targets for this particular disease. So, like for glioblastoma, I would target genes A, B, and C, but like for Huntington, it would be some other gene which is most like made more in that particular disease. So yeah, it would obviously depend on the disease that you're targeting. And then you would decide which gene to target. You can also target more than one gene at a time. Right now, I have just targeted one gene so far, but in future, we do plan on combining that gene therapy with, again, what Nadia said, chemotherapy with it, like make like a mixed cargo that can be delivered to wherever we want it to be delivered in the brain.
DN:
And certainly, the findings so far that both of you have been able to develop to date certainly sounds very encouraging because when people hear a diagnosis and certain forms of cancer, brain cancer, is certainly among them to be the most daunting to face. So, it is encouraging to see the work that you have already achieved to this point. And I want to wish you both the best of luck moving forward with compiling the finals of these results and then seeing that research forward into the future. Oshin and Nadia, thank you very much for sharing that with us. And again, best of luck to both of you.
NK: Thank you
OD:
Thank you for having us.
