Craniopharyngioma Drug Discovery Service

Creative Biolabs is an experienced leading service provider in the field of life science. Our scientists focus on neuroscience research and have developed a sophisticated platform, that offers global researchers reliable one-stop solutions for craniopharyngioma studies.

Craniopharyngiomas are rare extra-axial epithelial neoplasms in the central nervous system, which are generally classified into two predominant histological subtypes, adamantinomatous and papillary craniopharyngiomas. They are slow-growing benign tumors that extend into the critical cranial structures, including the sella and parasellar region. Then they adhere to and invade vascular and cortical structures, which lead to dysfunctions in the pituitary, hypothalamus, and optic nerve and, in severe cases, obstructive hydrocephalus. Currently, there exist no effective therapeutic agents for the treatment of craniopharyngiomas. With advanced technologies and tools, Creative Biolabs is committed to providing a full range of services to meet your research and development requirements in craniopharyngioma mechanism of action (MoA) studies and drug discovery.

Mechanism of Action Studies of Craniopharyngioma

The pathogenesis of craniopharyngiomas is the result of multiple genomic alterations on chromosomes 2 and 12, including dysregulation of DNA methylation and repair patterns, loss of tumor suppressor genes, and activation of oncogenes. Adamantinomatous craniopharyngiomas are mostly found in childhood, while papillary craniopharyngiomas occur exclusively in adults. Adamantinomatous craniopharyngiomas arise from ectopic embryonic remnants of Rathke's pouch, which have intimate interaction with the mutations of b-catenin encoded by the CTNNB1 gene. The expression of mutant b-catenin leads to accumulations in the nucleus and cytosol that activates the Wnt signaling pathway and thus causes tumorigenesis. The underlying mechanism of papillary craniopharyngiomas is awaited to be explained. Our neural scientists are prepared to answer questions you may have when studying craniopharyngioma and provide you with suggestions for your research projects.

Fig.1 Clinical and histopathological characteristics of adamantinomatous craniopharyngioma (ACP) and papillary craniopharyngioma (PCP). (Müller, 2019)

Craniopharyngioma Solutions at Creative Biolabs

Current treatment for brain tumor craniopharyngiomas generally uses the surgical removal of the tumor via orbitozygomatic craniotomy. This treatment regimen has a high surgical risk as it requires access to the skull base. Postoperative management may also recommend hormone replacement therapy with or without stereotactic radiotherapy. In addition, treatments for craniopharyngiomas also include cyst drainage, intracystic therapy with interferon-α, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, which depends on the tumor size, location, extension, and potential toxicity. Novel treatments with low surgical risks need to be explored. With years of experience, Creative Biolabs provides comprehensive in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo services as well as discovery and development services for craniopharyngioma studies. We provide dependable cell culture models and animal models to meet your research and development demands. The pathogenesis of both subtypes of craniopharyngiomas still needs to be addressed. For further MoA studies and drug discovery and development, a full range of discovery services is available at Creative Biolabs. More details about our platform and services for translational research and integrated research in craniopharyngiomas are demonstrated as follows.

To customize your preclinical craniopharyngioma drug discovery projects, please directly contact us for more information.

Reference

1. Müller, H.L.; et al. Craniopharyngioma. Nature Reviews Disease Primers. 2019, 5: 75.