Research identifies key enzyme target to fight deadly brain cancers
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 28-Apr-2025 12:08 ET (28-Apr-2025 16:08 GMT/UTC)
Researchers have found that targeting an enzyme called PGM3 can help stop the growth of glioblastoma, the most dangerous type of brain tumor. Researchers with The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James and Richard J. Solove Research Institute believe that targeting PGM3 enzyme can reduce tumor growth and eliminate glioblastoma cells.
Fifty years since its discovery, scientists have finally worked out how a molecular machine found in mitochondria, the ‘powerhouses’ of our cells, allows us to make the fuel we need from sugars, a process vital to all life on Earth. Scientists at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Mitochondrial Biology Unit, University of Cambridge, have worked out the structure of this machine and shown how it operates like the lock on a canal to transport pyruvate – a molecule generated in the body from the breakdown of sugars – into our mitochondria.
Researchers tested pyrvinium pamoate against Merkel cell carcinoma with positive results.