Publications by authors named "Manuel R Sacapano"
The blood-brain tumor barrier (BTB) significantly limits delivery of therapeutic concentrations of chemotherapy to brain tumors. A novel approach to selectively increase drug delivery is pharmacologic modulation of signaling molecules that regulate BTB permeability, such as those in cGMP signaling. Here we show that oral administration of sildenafil (Viagra) and vardenafil (Levitra), inhibitors of cGMP-specific PDE5, selectively increased tumor capillary permeability in 9L gliosarcoma-bearing rats with no significant increase in normal brain capillaries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe blood-brain tumor barrier (BTB) significantly limits delivery of effective concentrations of chemotherapeutic drugs to brain tumors. Previous studies suggest that BTB permeability may be modulated via alteration in the activity of potassium channels. In this study, we studied the relationship of BTB permeability increase mediated by potassium channel agonists to channel expression in two rat brain tumor models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The blood-brain tumor barrier (BTB) significantly limits the delivery of chemotherapeutics to brain tumors. Nitric oxide (NO) is involved in the regulation of cerebral vascular permeability. We investigated the effects of NO donors, L-arginine and hydroxyurea, on BTB permeability in 9L gliosarcoma-bearing Fischer rats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The blood-brain tumor barrier (BTB) impedes the delivery of therapeutic agents to brain tumors. While adequate delivery of drugs occurs in systemic tumors, the BTB limits delivery of anti-tumor agents into brain metastases.
Results: In this study, we examined the function and regulation of calcium-activated potassium (KCa) channels in a rat metastatic brain tumor model.