that increases ROS levels can exacerbate the predisposition, perhaps promoting the disease," Kornblum said.
In brain tumors, if the pathway gets activated in cells already susceptible to becoming cancerous, it may promote the proliferation of brain tumor cells or the propagation of brain tumors. Blocking the pathway, Kornblum said, may be one way to interrupt the malignant process.
Going forward, Kornblum and his team will seek to determine whether brain cancer cells use elevated ROS and the PI3K pathway to promote their own growth. Le Belle said they will also test whether elevated ROS during brain development can contribute to brain overgrowth in Autism. Additionally, the team will test to see if they can exploit the ROS-activated pathway to promote brain repair, for example, increasing the production of new neurons to replace damaged or dead neurons.
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