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

Glioblastoma harbors a dynamic subpopulation of glioblastoma stem-like cells (GSCs) that can propagate tumors in vivo and is resistant to standard chemoradiation. Identification of the cell-intrinsic mechanisms governing this clinically important cell state may lead to the discovery of therapeutic strategies for this challenging malignancy. Here, we demonstrate that the mitotic E3 ubiquitin ligase CDC20-anaphase-promoting complex (CDC20-APC) drives invasiveness and self-renewal in patient tumor-derived GSCs. Moreover, CDC20 knockdown inhibited and CDC20 overexpression increased the ability of human GSCs to generate brain tumors in an orthotopic xenograft model in vivo. CDC20-APC control of GSC invasion and self-renewal operates through pluripotency-related transcription factor SOX2. Our results identify a CDC20-APC/SOX2 signaling axis that controls key biological properties of GSCs, with implications for CDC20-APC-targeted strategies in the treatment of glioblastoma.
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PMID:A CDC20-APC/SOX2 Signaling Axis Regulates Human Glioblastoma Stem-like Cells. 2607 73

The available evidence suggests that the lethality of glioblastoma is driven by small subpopulations of cells that self-renew and exhibit tumorigenicity. It remains unclear whether tumorigenicity exists as a static property of a few cells or as a dynamically acquired property. We used tumor-sphere and xenograft formation as assays for tumorigenicity and examined subclones isolated from established and primary glioblastoma lines. Our results indicate that glioblastoma tumorigenicity is largely deterministic, yet the property can be acquired spontaneously at low frequencies. Further, these dynamic transitions are governed by epigenetic reprogramming through the lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1). LSD depletion increases trimethylation of histone 3 lysine 4 at the avian myelocytomatosis viral oncogene homolog (MYC) locus, which elevates MYC expression. MYC, in turn, regulates oligodendrocyte lineage transcription factor 2 (OLIG2), SRY (sex determining region Y)-box 2 (SOX2), and POU class 3 homeobox 2 (POU3F2), a core set of transcription factors required for reprogramming glioblastoma cells into stem-like states. Our model suggests epigenetic regulation of key transcription factors governs transitions between tumorigenic states and provides a framework for glioblastoma therapeutic development.
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PMID:Dynamic epigenetic regulation of glioblastoma tumorigenicity through LSD1 modulation of MYC expression. 2615 21

Phosphoglucose isomerase/autocrine motility factor (PGI/AMF) is secreted by tumors and influences tumor growth and metastasis. In order to investigate the effects of silencing PGI/AMF on the migration and the sphere forming abilities of human glioblastoma U87 cells, as well as on the side population cells (SPCs), PGI/AMF was silenced using siRNA. Western blot analysis and RT-qPCR were used to assess the expression of PGI/AMF, Akt and SRY (sex determining region Y)-box 2 (SOX2). Wound healing, migration and tumorsphere formation assays were performed to assess invasion and metastatic potential. The proportion of SPCs was determined using Hoechst 33342 dye and flow cytometric analysis. PGI/AMF silencing inhibited the wound healing capacity and migration ability of U87 cells by 52.6 and 80.4%, respectively, compared with the scrambled siRNA (both P<0.001). Silencing of PGI/AMF decreased the proportion of SPCs in the U87 cells by 80.9% (P<0.01). The silencing of PGI/AMF decreased the number and size of tumorspheres by 53.1 and 39.9%, respectively, compared with the scrambled siRNA (both P<0.01). The silencing of PGI/AMF decreased the levels of phosphorylated Akt (-71.9%, P<0.001) compared with the scrambled siRNA, as well as the levels of the stemness marker, SOX2 (-61.7%, P<0.01). Taken together, these findings suggest that PGI/AMF silencing decreases migration, tumorsphere formation as well as the proportion of SPCs in glioblastoma U87 cells. We suggest that the Akt pathway is involved, and our results provide a potential new target for the treatment of glioblastoma.
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PMID:Silencing of phosphoglucose isomerase/autocrine motility factor decreases U87 human glioblastoma cell migration. 2693 1

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive type of brain tumor, with strong invasiveness and a high tolerance to chemotherapy. Despite the current standard treatment combining temozolomide (TMZ) and radiotherapy, glioblastoma can be incurable due to drug resistance. The existence of glioma stem-like cells (GSCs) is considered the major reason for drug resistance. However, the mechanism of GSC enrichment remains unclear. Herein, we found that the expression and secretion of angiopoietin-like 4 protein (ANGPTL4) were clearly increased in GSCs. The overexpression of ANGPTL4 induced GSC enrichment that was characterized by polycomb complex protein BMI-1 and SRY (sex determining region Y)-box 2 (SOX2) expression, resulting in TMZ resistance in GBM. Furthermore, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) phosphorylation induced 4E-BP1 phosphorylation that was required for ANGPTL4-induced GSC enrichment. In particular, ANGPTL4 induced 4E-BP1 phosphorylation by activating phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) cascades for inducing stemness. To elucidate the mechanism contributing to ANGPTL4 upregulation in GSCs, chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with sequencing (ChIP-Seq) revealed that specificity protein 4 (Sp4) was associated with the promoter region, -979 to -606, and the luciferase reporter assay revealed that Sp4 positively regulated activity of the ANGPTL4 promoter. Moreover, both ANGPTL4 and Sp4 were highly expressed in GBM and resulted in a poor prognosis. Taken together, Sp4-mediated ANGPTL4 upregulation induces GSC enrichment through the EGFR/AKT/4E-BP1 cascade.
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PMID:ANGPTL4 Induces TMZ Resistance of Glioblastoma by Promoting Cancer Stemness Enrichment via the EGFR/AKT/4E-BP1 Cascade. 3171 24

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common malignant primary brain tumor in adults and prognosis is poor despite maximum therapeutic efforts. GBM is composed of heterogeneous cell populations, among which the glioma stem-like cells (GSCs) play an important role in tumor cell self-renewal and the ability to initiate and drive tumor growth and recurrence. The transcription factor SOX2 is enriched in GSCs where it controls the stem cell phenotype, invasion and maintenance of tumorigenicity. Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanisms governed by SOX2 in GSCs is crucial to developing targeted therapies against this resistant cell population. In this study, we identified and validated a miRNA profile regulated by SOX2 in GSCs. Among these miRNAs, miR-425-5p emerged as a significant robust candidate for further study. The expression of miR-425-5p was significantly enriched in clinical GBM specimens compared with a human brain reference sample and showed a positive correlation with SOX2 expression. Using a combination of in silico analyses and molecular approaches, we show that SOX2 binds to the promoter of miR-425-5p. Loss of function studies show that repressing miR-425-5p expression in multiple GSCs inhibited neurosphere renewal and induced cell death. More importantly, miR-425-5p inhibition extended survival in an orthotopic GBM mouse model. Finally, combining several bioinformatics platforms with biological endpoints in multiple GSC lines, we identified FOXJ3 and RAB31 as high confidence miR-425-5p target genes. Our findings show that miR-425-5p is a GBM stem cell survival factor and that miR-425-5p inhibition function is a potential strategy for treating GBM.
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PMID:miR-425-5p, a SOX2 target, regulates the expression of FOXJ3 and RAB31 and promotes the survival of GSCs. 3290 73