Brain tumors discovered in both humans and dogs have been found to have similar genetic makeup, new research says.
Researchers at Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (VMBS), Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital said in a study released in the scientific journal Acta Neuropathologica earlier this week that there are similarities found in meningiomas — the most common type of brain tumor in humans and dogs.
“The discovery that naturally occurring canine tumors closely resemble their human counterparts opens numerous avenues for exploring the biology of these challenging tumors,” Dr. Akash Patel, an associate professor of neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine and principal investigator at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital, said, per Texas A&M.
He added, “It also provides opportunities for developing and studying novel treatments applicable to both humans and dogs.”
For the study, researchers looked at 62 canine meningiomas from 27 dog breeds. The research marked the "largest study to date of the gene expression profiles of canine meningiomas," per Texas A&M.
Along with Patel, others who aided in the study included Dr. Jonathan Levine, a VMBS professor and head of the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences (VSCS), and Dr. Tiemo Klisch, assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine and principal investigator at Duncan NRI. VSCS assistant professor Dr. Beth Boudreau, meanwhile, was "a key collaborator," Texas A&M said.
Previous work done by Levine, Boudreau and others at the VMBS found genetic similarities between gliomas, which are the second most common type of brain tumors in humans and dogs.
“We ended up agreeing to provide Patel with canine tumor samples we had worked years and years to archive, to see if he could isolate the RNA, which is not always easy to do,” Levine said in a statement. “He was able to produce this very robust data set that showed a similar pattern structure to human tumors. Our team also provided Dr. Patel with key clinical outcome data, including responses to certain treatments.”
Looking ahead, researchers now hope to craft clinical trials to further their research, though they can "take several years to plan and fund," Texas A&M reported.
“We’re really interested in creating wins for both human and animal medicine,” Levine said. “For example, we hope to give dog owners access to therapy that’s not available anywhere else in the world through clinical trials."
"At the same time, that information will also inform the next step of human trials," the researcher continued.
Added Levine: "One of the benefits of this project is that we already have all this genetic data that we can use to decide what might make a good treatment. Part one has set us up very well to work on part two.”
