Anti-diarrhoea drug drives cancer cells to cell death
Several classes of opioids have been shown to cause neuronal degeneration via ATF4 activation. So, key points:<p>1. Loperamide is not unique. I don&#x27;t know why these researchers have singled it out. Is it because they heard there&#x27;s an opioid that doesn&#x27;t get you high? It only avoids getting you high because it doesn&#x27;t get into the brain. IF you deliver it to the brain to treat a brain tumor, it will get you high.<p>2. Patients with GBM already get a shit-ton of opioids for pain, which <i>do</i> cross the blood-brain barrier. Is there any reason at all to imagine that this opioid, using the same mechanism as other opioids, if delivered the area other opioids already reach, will have a different outcome?<p>3. I don&#x27;t understand why identifying that loperamide causes cell death via ATF4 is even worth publishing. &quot;Opioid that causes cell death uses same mechanism as other opioids that induce cell death&quot;? Maybe I&#x27;m missing something here?<p>4. This was published in Autophagy. Which is another way of saying it wasn&#x27;t novel enough to be published anywhere anyone reads. Which is why this is a university press release, and not a discussion by anyone else.