Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0017636 (glioblastoma)
18,345 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Tumoral growth effects on brain circuitry and neurochemical activities remain poorly documented. This study evaluates C6 graft effects on striatal dopaminergic afferent projections at both anatomical and functional levels. Immunohistochemistry was performed to investigate changes in neurofilament (NF), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and dopamine transporter (DAT) expression. Dopaminergic turnover was assessed using multiprobe microdialysis in freely-moving rat. In C6 graft striatum, dopamine (DA) catabolites were reduced in glioblastoma (DOPAC: -61%, HVA: -62%). In contrast, the DA level remained unchanged. Staining for NF, TH and DAT was drastically decreased inside the tumor. Our histological data report that striatal tumoral growth is associated with a decrease in the density of dopaminergic endings which can explain, at least in part, the decrease in DA turnover. The decrease in DAT transporter expression and the lack of change in DA level may result from an increase in DA diffusion from the peripheral areas of the tumor. In conclusion, glioblastoma growth has major consequences on the local neuronal circuitry and its neurochemistry. Changes in inter-connections and neurotransmitter turnover may result in abnormal neuronal firing activity and participate in clinical disorders associated with glioblastoma diagnosis.
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PMID:Alteration of striatal dopaminergic function induced by glioma development: a microdialysis and immunohistological study in the rat striatum. 1469 56

Melanocytes and neuroblasts share the property of transforming L-tyrosine through two distinct metabolic pathways leading to melanogenesis and catecholamine synthesis, respectively. While tyrosinase (TYR) activity has been shown to be expressed by neuroblastoma it remains to be established as to whether also glioblastomas cells are endowed with this property. We have addressed this issue using the human continuous glioblastoma cell line ADF. We demonstrated that these cells possess tyrosinase as well as L-tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) activity and synthesize melanosomes. Because the two pathways are potentially cyto-genotoxic due to production of quinones, semiquinones, and reactive oxygen species (ROS), we have also investigated the expression of the peroxisomal proliferators activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) and nuclear factor-kB (NFkB) transcription factor as well the effect of L-tyrosine concentration on cell survival. We report that L-tyrosine down-regulates PPARalpha expression in ADF cells but not neuroblastoma and that this aminoacid and phenylthiourea (PTU) induces apoptosis in glioblastoma and neuroblastoma.
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PMID:Human glioblastoma ADF cells express tyrosinase, L-tyrosine hydroxylase and melanosomes and are sensitive to L-tyrosine and phenylthiourea. 1644 58

Previously, we have reported that glioblastoma (GBM) cells can be differentiated into cells showing neuronal, glial and non-neural (mesenchymal) phenotypes. Before the differentiation the GBM cells co-expressed GFAP, CD44, Beta III tubulin, MAP2, Vimentin, Nestin and SOX-2, whereas during the exposure to a neural differentiation medium the differentiation process was arrested at the early stages and the GBM cells presented features of four phenotypes: multi-lineage, non-neural (mesenchymal), intermediate of neuronal cells and glial cells. Currently, we decided to check if changes in expression of: TH (tyrosine hydroxylase, marker of catecholaminergic cells) and GABA (neurotransmitter of GABAergic neurons) and markers of oligodendrocytic cells (O4, CNP) occur during the exposure of GBM cells to the differentiation medium. After exposure to the PDGF alpha and thyroid hormones (oligodendrocytic differentiation medium 10-30 days) features of oligodendrocytic differentiation were presented by 0.2-2.4% of analyzed cells. During the prolonged neural differentiation (GDNF, bFGF 20-30 days) only few cells showed expression of GABA. Moreover, in our cell cultures, there were not cells expressing markers of catecholaminergic neurons - TH. Our work confirmed that the neuronal differentiation of GBM was inhibited at the stage of the neuronal intermediate phenotype. Moreover, we showed that the oligodendrocytic differentiation of GBM cells is very inefficient.
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PMID:Imperfect oligodendrocytic and neuronal differentiation of glioblastoma cells. 2038 8