VA Research Wrap Up: New findings on cancer treatment, Parkinson’s disease and dementia

This week, VA’s Office of Research and Development published three News Briefs highlighting research advances on a potential new liver cancer treatment, Parkinson’s disease treatment and dementia.

Drug combo shows promise for treating liver cancer

VA Miami researchers demonstrated a combination of two chemotherapy drugs can kill liver cancer cells while leaving non-cancer cells unharmed. A major obstacle to developing cancer treatments is targeting cancer cells without harming non-cancer cells. To overcome this difficulty, the researchers combined a drug called rencofilstat with another called ixazomib. Using both lab-cultured human cancer cells and a mouse model, they showed this combination can exploit biological differences between cancer cells and healthy liver cells to cause cancer cells to die without harm to other cells. This chemotherapy combination could be a promising new treatment for liver cancer. View the full study in the “International Journal of Molecular Sciences.”

Robot-led exercise benefits people with Parkinson’s

Atlanta VA researchers and colleagues developed a novel robot-led exercise system that exercise specialists believe could help patients with Parkinson’s disease. The study involved 11 exercise specialists, mostly physical therapists, who evaluated a robot-led exercise program called ZEST-E on how well it performed exercise tasks, its benefits to their practice, and patient acceptance. They found the system engaging for patients and said it could provide effective and personalized care in clinics, homes and nursing homes. In an earlier study, people with Parkinson’s disease had a favorable response to the robot-led exercise system. The specialists believed ZEST-E could be improved with more human-like feedback to the patient and increased ease of use. The study suggests robot-assisted exercise has great potential to alleviate symptoms and improve the quality of life for people with Parkinson’s disease. View the full study in the journal “Healthcare.”

Chronic viral infection may accelerate dementia in women

Minneapolis VA’s Brain Science Center investigators learned women with blood markers for human herpes virus (HHV) accumulated dementia-related biomarkers twice as fast as women without prior infection. The researchers measured five dementia-related biomarkers in blood from 167 women without cognitive impairment during annual visits. Successive blood samples showed a greater accumulation of age-related biomarkers of dementia in women who were positive for HHV. These biomarkers can indicate dementia years before behavioral symptoms emerge. Having markers for HHV, a family of viruses that cause conditions such as cold sores, genital herpes, chickenpox and mononucleosis, means a person has or has had a herpes virus infection at one point. The findings support the suggestion that chronic viral infections may contribute to and accelerate dementia. View the full study in “Scientific Reports.”

For more Office of Research and Development updates, visit ORD online or go to https://www.research.va.gov/news_briefs/.