Cellular railroad switches: how brain cells route supplies to build memories
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 22-Oct-2025 19:11 ET (22-Oct-2025 23:11 GMT/UTC)
Discovery shows how two different Rab proteins direct the delivery of key components needed for memory formation
What happens when the relief of surviving brain cancer is accompanied by struggles to remember and concentrate, negatively impacting your quality of life? This is the unfortunate reality for many cancer survivors. But what if we could protect the brain from cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI)? Paving the way is a new study by UC Irvine researchers, including Munjal Acharya, An Do, Robert Krattli, and Andrea Tenner, along with Trent Woodruff of the University of Queensland. “We’ve identified a new, targeted way to protect the brain from the harmful side effects of cranial radiation therapy, a standard of care for brain cancers that often causes irreversible cognitive decline,” says Acharya. “This opens a realistic pathway to preserving quality of life for millions of brain cancer survivors currently facing this unmet medical need.” The findings appear in a paper published by the journal Cancer Research.
An international study conducted by the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology and the Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cooperative Group reveals that age-based classifications in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) may be outdated and overly simplistic.