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Alterations to the circadian clock make brain tumours vulnerable

The body’s circadian clock ensures the rhythmic expression of some genes across the day. The catalogue of genes under circadian control changes in an aggressive brain cancer — a discovery that might open up a new avenue for treatment.
  1. Guiomar Solanas

    1. Guiomar Solanas is at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine Barcelona, Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.

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  2. Salvador A. Benitah

    1. Salvador A. Benitah is at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine Barcelona, Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; and at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA).

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All organisms have an internal circadian clock, which ensures that physiological functions occur at the right time of day — for instance, that the intestine, pancreas and liver are ready to metabolize food when you eat rather than when you are sleeping. Writing in Cancer Discovery, Dong et al.1 report that the cells responsible for initiating a specific type of aggressive brain tumour, glioblastoma, rely on an altered circadian clock to grow. What’s more, drug-based inhibition of the cells’ molecular clock can kill them.

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Nature 574, 337-338 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03042-0

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