As we all know, there continues to be a dire need for new treatment options for diffuse midline gliomas #DMG A breakthrough in recent years have shown that many DMGs have a specific K27M mutation on Histone protein H3. What are histones? Histones bind, unwrap or wind-up DNA, and plays a large role in controlling what genes can be “on” vs “off”. Mutations in these histone proteins are thought to promote cancer growth by allowing cancer-inducing genes to turn “on”. Knowing how important these histones are in controlling gene expression, researchers have wanted to exploit this with histone modifying drugs such as Panobinostat. Clinical trials of panobinostat in pediatric DMG patients are currently underway, but efficacy has not yet been determined. In the meantime, Dr. Vitanza and his colleagues are trying to identify additional HDAC inhibitors that could potentially be used for the treatment of DMGs. In this study, they found that Quisinostat and romidepsin were effective in pre-clinical animal models. We will definitely be seeing more and more of these histone modifying drugs go into clinical trial soon. Hopeful news for DIPG!
Source: Neuro-Oncology, Volume 23, Issue 3, March 2021, Pages 376–386, https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/noaa249