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Query: UMLS:C0017636 (glioblastoma)
 18,345 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Growth characteristics of human fetal neural cells (CH) and human glioblastoma multiforme-derived cells (12-18) in culture were compared. Cells were grown to confluent densities of 38,000 to 42,500 cells/cm2 for CH and 85,800 to 87,100 for 12-18. Population doubling times were 40.0 +/- 5.1 hr and 66.5 +/- 9.8 hr for CH and 12-18 cells, respectively. The mean DNA content per cell of the glioma-derived cells was twice that of the fetal brain cells at sparse, log, and confluent cell densities. High concentrations (40%) of serum in growth medium increased DNA contents in confluent CH, but not 12-18, cells. The amount of protein per cell also was consistently higher in glioma cells than CH cells, but, as cell densities increased, protein contents decreased for both: 1200 to 700 pg/cell in glioma cells, and 840 to 560 pg/cell in CH cells. In each cell line, initial rates of [3H]ThdR incorporation into TCA precipitable material decreased as cell density increased, but confluent glioma-derived cells incorporated 10 times more [3H]ThdR than confluent fetal cells. Almost all CH cells had a normal diploid chromosome number of 46. A histogram showing the relative frequencies of chromosome numbers of glioma-derived cells had peaks of 52, 79, and 105 chromosomes per metaphase, indicating a haploid number of 26 for most cells. Lengths of cell cycle phases, determined using autoradiographic techniques, indicate that glioma-derived cells had a longer generation time and S period than fetal neural cells. These data demonstrate several biological differences between glioblastoma-derived cells and non-neoplastic fetal neural cells, indicating that this system is of potential value for comparative studies on growth control and contact inhibition.
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PMID:Growth characteristics of human glioma-derived and fetal neural cells in culture. 626 61

The past decade has seen a revival of interest in the metabolic adaptations of tumours, named for their original discoverer, Otto Warburg. Warburg reported a high rate of glycolysis in tumours, and a concurrent defect in mitochondrial respiration. The rediscovery of Warburg's hypothesis coincided with the discovery of mitochondrial tumours suppressor genes that may conform to Warburg's hypothesis. Succinate dehydrogenase and fumarate hydratase are mitochondrial proteins of the TCA cycle and the respiratory chain and when mutated lead to tumours of the nervous system known as paragangliomas and pheochromocytomas, and in the case of fumarate hydratase, cutaneous and uterine leiomyomas and renal cell cancer. Recently a novel mitochondrial protein, SDHAF2 (SDH5), was also shown to be a paraganglioma-related tumour suppressor gene. Another mitochondrial and TCA cycle-related protein, isocitrate dehydrogenase 2 is, together with IDH1, frequently mutated in the brain tumour glioblastoma. There are currently many competing hypotheses on the role of these genes in tumourigenesis, but frequent themes are the stabilization of hypoxia inducible factor 1 and upregulation of genes involved in angiogenesis, glucose transport and glycolysis. Other postulated mechanisms include the inhibition of developmental apoptosis, altered gene expression due to histone deregulation and the acquisition of novel catalytic properties. Here we discuss these diverse hypotheses and highlight very recent findings on the possible effects of IDH gene mutations.
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PMID:Warburg tumours and the mechanisms of mitochondrial tumour suppressor genes. Barking up the right tree? 2030 25

Cancer cells exhibit remarkable alterations in cellular metabolism, particularly in their nutrient substrate preference. We have devised several experimental methods that rapidly analyze the metabolic substrate flux in cancer cells: glycolysis and the oxidation of major fuel substrates glucose, glutamine, and fatty acids. Using the XF Extracellular Flux analyzer, these methods measure, in real-time, the oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) of living cells in a microplate as they respond to substrates and metabolic perturbation agents. In proof-of-principle experiments, we analyzed substrate flux and mitochondrial bioenergetics of two human glioblastoma cell lines, SF188s and SF188f, which were derived from the same parental cell line but proliferate at slow and fast rates, respectively. These analyses led to three interesting observations: 1) both cell lines respired effectively with substantial endogenous substrate respiration; 2) SF188f cells underwent a significant shift from glycolytic to oxidative metabolism, along with a high rate of glutamine oxidation relative to SF188s cells; and 3) the mitochondrial proton leak-linked respiration of SF188f cells increased significantly compared to SF188s cells. It is plausible that the proton leak of SF188f cells may play a role in allowing continuous glutamine-fueled anaplerotic TCA cycle flux by partially uncoupling the TCA cycle from oxidative phosphorylation. Taken together, these rapid, sensitive and high-throughput substrate flux analysis methods introduce highly valuable approaches for developing a greater understanding of genetic and epigenetic pathways that regulate cellular metabolism, and the development of therapies that target cancer metabolism.
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PMID:Rapid analysis of glycolytic and oxidative substrate flux of cancer cells in a microplate. 2536 May 19

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly aggressive primary brain tumor with dismal outcome for affected patients. Because of the significant neo-angiogenesis exhibited by GBMs, anti-angiogenic therapies have been intensively evaluated during the past years. Recent clinical studies were however disappointing, although a subpopulation of patients may benefit from such treatment. We have previously shown that anti-angiogenic targeting in GBM increases hypoxia and leads to a metabolic adaptation toward glycolysis, suggesting that combination treatments also targeting the glycolytic phenotype may be effective in GBM patients. The aim of this study was to identify marker proteins that are altered by treatment and may serve as a short term readout of anti-angiogenic therapy. Ultimately such proteins could be tested as markers of efficacy able to identify patient subpopulations responsive to the treatment. We applied a proteomics approach based on selected reaction monitoring (SRM) to precisely quantify targeted protein candidates, selected from pathways related to metabolism, apoptosis and angiogenesis. The workflow was developed in the context of patient-derived intracranial GBM xenografts developed in rodents and ensured the specific identification of human tumor versus rodent stroma-derived proteins. Quality control experiments were applied to assess sample heterogeneity and reproducibility of SRM assays at different levels. The data demonstrate that tumor specific proteins can be precisely quantified within complex biological samples, reliably identifying small concentration differences induced by the treatment. In line with previous work, we identified decreased levels of TCA cycle enzymes, including isocitrate dehydrogenase, whereas malectin, calnexin, and lactate dehydrogenase A were augmented after treatment. We propose the most responsive proteins of our subset as potential novel biomarkers to assess treatment response after anti-angiogenic therapy that warrant future analysis in clinical GBM samples.
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PMID:Targeted Proteomics to Assess the Response to Anti-Angiogenic Treatment in Human Glioblastoma (GBM). 2624 72

Glucose and glutamine are essential energy metabolites for brain tumor growth and survival under both normoxic and hypoxic conditions. Both metabolites can contribute their carbons to lipid biosynthesis. We used uniformly labeled [(14)C]-U-D-glucose and [(14)C]-U-L-glutamine to examine the profile of de novo lipid biosynthesis in the VM-M3 murine glioblastoma cells. The major lipids synthesized included phosphatidylcholine (PtdCho), phosphatidylethanolamine (EtnGpl), phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns), phosphatidylserine (PtdSer), sphingomyelin (CerPCho), bis(monoacylglycero)phosphate (BMP)/phosphatidic acid (PtdOH), cholesterol (C), cardiolipin (Ptd2Gro), and gangliosides. Endogenous lipid synthesis, using either glucose or glutamine, was greater in media without fetal bovine serum (FBS) than in media containing 10 % FBS under normoxia. De novo lipid synthesis was greater using glucose carbons than glutamine carbons under normoxia. The reverse was observed for most lipids under hypoxia suggesting an attenuation of glucose entering the TCA cycle. Lactate was produced largely from glucose carbons with minimal lactate derived from glutamine under either normoxia or hypoxia. Accumulation of triacylglycerols (TAG), containing mostly saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids, was observed under hypoxia using carbons from either glucose or glutamine. The data show that the incorporation of labeled glucose and glutamine into most synthesized lipids was dependent on the type of growth environment, and that the VM-M3 glioblastoma cells could acquire lipids, especially cholesterol, from the external environment for growth and proliferation.
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PMID:Influence of Serum and Hypoxia on Incorporation of [(14)C]-D-Glucose or [(14)C]-L-Glutamine into Lipids and Lactate in Murine Glioblastoma Cells. 2653 5

A hallmark of cellular transformation is the evasion of contact-dependent inhibition of growth. To find new therapeutic targets for glioblastoma, we looked for pathways that are inhibited by high cell density in astrocytes but not in glioma cells. Here we report that glioma cells have disabled the normal controls on cholesterol synthesis. At high cell density, astrocytes turn off cholesterol synthesis genes and have low cholesterol levels, but glioma cells keep this pathway on and maintain high cholesterol. Correspondingly, cholesterol pathway upregulation is associated with poor prognosis in glioblastoma patients. Densely-plated glioma cells increase oxygen consumption, aerobic glycolysis, and the pentose phosphate pathway to synthesize cholesterol, resulting in a decrease in reactive oxygen species, TCA cycle intermediates, and ATP. This constitutive cholesterol synthesis is controlled by the cell cycle, as it can be turned off by cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors and it correlates with disabled cell cycle control though loss of p53 and RB. Finally, glioma cells, but not astrocytes, are sensitive to cholesterol synthesis inhibition downstream of the mevalonate pathway, suggesting that specifically targeting cholesterol synthesis might be an effective treatment for glioblastoma.
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PMID:Disabled cell density sensing leads to dysregulated cholesterol synthesis in glioblastoma. 2811 3

Glioblastoma are notorious for their highly invasive growth, diffusely infiltrating adjacent brain structures that precludes complete resection, and is a major obstacle for cure. To characterize this "invisible" tumor part, we designed a high resolution multimodal imaging approach assessing in vivo the metabolism of invasively growing glioma xenografts in the mouse brain. Animals were subjected longitudinally to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and 1 H spectroscopy (MRS) at ultra high field (14.1 Tesla) that allowed the measurement of 16 metabolic biomarkers to characterize the metabolic profiles. As expected, the neuronal functionality was progressively compromised as indicated by decreasing N-acetyl aspartate, glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid and reduced neuronal TCA cycle (-58%) and neurotransmission (-50%). The dynamic metabolic changes observed, captured differences in invasive growth that was modulated by re-expression of the tumor suppressor gene WNT inhibitory factor 1 (WIF1) in the orthotopic xenografts that attenuates invasion. At late stage mice were subjected to 13 C MRS with infusion of [1,6-13 C]glucose and 18 FDG positron emission tomography (PET) to quantify cell-specific metabolic fluxes involved in glucose metabolism. Most interestingly, this provided the first in vivo evidence for significant glucose oxidation in glioma cells. This suggests that the infiltrative front of glioma does not undergo the glycolytic switch per se, but that environmental triggers may induce metabolic reprograming of tumor cells.
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PMID:In vivo characterization of brain metabolism by 1 H MRS, 13 C MRS and 18 FDG PET reveals significant glucose oxidation of invasively growing glioma cells. 2941 80

Cancer cells upregulate anabolic processes to maintain high rates of cellular turnover. Limiting the supply of macromolecular precursors by targeting enzymes involved in biosynthesis is a promising strategy in cancer therapy. Several tumors excessively metabolize glutamine to generate precursors for nonessential amino acids, nucleotides, and lipids, in a process called glutaminolysis. Here we show that pharmacological inhibition of glutaminase (GLS) eradicates glioblastoma stem-like cells (GSCs), a small cell subpopulation in glioblastoma (GBM) responsible for therapy resistance and tumor recurrence. Treatment with small molecule inhibitors compound 968 and CB839 effectively diminished cell growth and in vitro clonogenicity of GSC neurosphere cultures. However, our pharmaco-metabolic studies revealed that only CB839 inhibited GLS enzymatic activity thereby limiting the influx of glutamine derivates into the TCA cycle. Nevertheless, the effects of both inhibitors were highly GLS specific, since treatment sensitivity markedly correlated with GLS protein expression. Strikingly, we found GLS overexpressed in in vitro GSC models as compared with neural stem cells (NSC). Moreover, our study demonstrates the usefulness of in vitro pharmaco-metabolomics to score target specificity of compounds thereby refining drug development and risk assessment.
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PMID:A comparative pharmaco-metabolomic study of glutaminase inhibitors in glioma stem-like cells confirms biological effectiveness but reveals differences in target-specificity. 3233 72

Cancer cells can metabolize glutamine to replenish TCA cycle intermediates, leading to a dependence on glutaminolysis for cell survival. However, a mechanistic understanding of the role that glutamine metabolism has on the survival of glioblastoma (GBM) brain tumor stem cells (BTSC) has not yet been elucidated. Here we report that, across a panel of 19 glioblastoma BTSC lines, inhibition of glutaminase (GLS) showed a variable response from complete blockade of cell growth to absolute resistance. Surprisingly, BTSC sensitivity to GLS inhibition was a result of reduced intracellular glutamate triggering the amino acid deprivation response (AADR) and not due to the contribution of glutaminolysis to the TCA cycle. Moreover, BTSC sensitivity to GLS inhibition negatively correlated with expression of the astrocytic glutamate transporters EAAT1 and EAAT2. Blocking glutamate transport in BTSCs with high EAAT1/EAAT2 expression rendered cells susceptible to GLS inhibition, triggering the AADR and limiting cell growth. These findings uncover a unique metabolic vulnerability in BTSCs and support the therapeutic targeting of upstream activators and downstream effectors of the AADR pathway in GBM. Moreover, they demonstrate that gene expression patterns reflecting the cellular hierarchy of the tissue of origin can alter the metabolic requirements of the cancer stem cell population.
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PMID:Brain tumor stem cell dependence on glutaminase reveals a metabolic vulnerability through the amino acid deprivation response pathway. 3310 33