In a newly published study, medical researchers led by neurologist Michelle Monje at Stanford report than many aggressive forms of brain cancer appear to worsen the more you think. Not just about the cancer, but anything. The more brain activity you have, the faster the cancer cells divide. This discovery has the potential to lead to the creation of new treatments for previously terminal diseases.
Monje and her colleagues came to this realization while studying diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a rare cancer found in children that is untreatable by any current means. The team used a mouse model to investigate the hypothesis that DIPG was hijacking the chemical signals related to myelination, an important part of maintaining the brain and its functionality.
Myelin is a compound created by glial cells that covers and insulates the axons of nerve cells. This improves their ability to transmit signals to other neurons and is essential to good function of the nervous system. The more brain activity you have, the more myelin you’re likely to need as new connections are formed. That’s why the cells that produce myelin divide more quickly when brain activity is elevated.
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