Malignant Metabolism

Growing among these healthy neurons (green) are malevolent medulloblastoma cells (red). While medulloblastoma is rare in the general population, it is the most common and most deadly type of brain cancer to affect children. The cancer begins in the back of the brain – a region called the cerebellum – causing symptoms such as headaches, clumsiness and vision problems. But, as the cancer creeps into other parts of the brain, or the spinal cord, so the symptoms vary and worsen. The ability of medulloblastoma to spread, scientists have discovered, depends on the cells switching their metabolic activity to allow the neurotransmitter GABA to be used as an energy source. Worryingly, this metabolic switch also makes the cells more resistant to common chemotherapies. While the findings suggest existing treatments are limited, they will ultimately aid the development of new ones, if a way to prevent or exploit the metabolic switch can be found.

Written by Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams

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Ruth is a freelance science journalist based in the US. She's a regular correspondent for The Scientist, and her work has appeared in The Lancet, Nature, Scientific American Mind, BBC Focus and elsewhere. Twitter @rooph

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• Image from work by Vahan Martirosian and colleagues
• Department of Neurological Surgery, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Published in Cell Reports, June 2021