Ewa Liszewska and Jacek Jaworski Received the Herbert Reisner Prize
Dr. Ewa Liszewska and Prof. Jacek Jaworski are co-authors of a publication that received the Herbert Reisner Prize. Research conducted in collaboration by scientists from Vienna, Warsaw, Amsterdam, and Heemstede revealed a new, potential therapy for treating tuberous sclerosis complex.
The scientists focused on the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which is hyperactive in the rare genetic disease tuberous sclerosis. This hyperactivity affects a specific group of neuronal progenitor cells that give rise to inhibitory neurons of the human cerebral cortex. Previous studies have shown that the developmental disturbance of these cells in tuberous sclerosis contributes to the formation of numerous benign brain tumors (e.g., subependymal giant cell astrocytoma so-called SEGA) in patients. The drug afatinib (a tyrosine kinase inhibitor) tested in the study, was found to block EGFR activity in SEGA cells reducing their growth and survival. These results suggest that blocking EGFR could be a promising alternative treatment for brain lesions in patients with tuberous sclerosis or similar disorders (e.g., in cortical dysplasias). This potential breakthrough could significantly improve the care of patients for whom current therapies using the drug everolimus (an inhibitor of the mTOR protein) are not fully effective.
Scientists from the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw were responsible for conducting the experiments on unique cell cultures obtained from SEGA.
The Herbert Reisner Prize has been granted by the Austrian Epilepsy Society since 1989. It is awarded every two years to the authors of outstanding publications in the field of epileptology. The recognized publication, titled "Targeting the EGFR pathway: An alternative strategy for the treatment of tuberous sclerosis complex?" was published in Neuropathology and Applied Neurobiology.
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List of awarded authors:
Julia Schachenhofer, Victoria-Elisabeth Gruber, Stefanie Valerie Fehrer, Carmen Haider, Sarah Glatter, Ewa Liszewska, Romana Höftberger, Eleonora Aronica, Karl Rössler, Jacek Jaworski, Theresa Scholl, Martha Feucht