Glioma angiogenesis

Brain tumors exhibit marked and aberrant blood vessel formation indicating angiogenic endothelial cells as a potential target for brain tumor treatment. The brain tumor blood vessels are used for nutrient delivery, and possibly for cancer cell migration. The process of angiogenesis is complex and involves multiple players. The current angiogenesis inhibitors used in clinical trials mostly target single angiogenic proteins and so far show limited effects on tumor growth. Besides the conventional angiogenesis inhibitors, RNA-based inhibitors such as small-interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are being analyzed for their capacity to silence the message of proteins involved in neovascularization. More recently, a new family of non-coding RNAs, named angiomirs [microRNAs (miRNAs) involved in angiogenesis] has emerged. These small RNAs have the advantage over siRNAs in that they have the potential of silencing multiple messages at the same time and therefore they might become therapeutically relevant in a “one-hit multiple-target” context against brain tumor angiogenesis. In this review we will discuss the emerging technologies in anti-angiogenesis emphasizing on RNA-based therapeutics.     

Glioma models

Gliomas are primary central nervous system tumors that arise from astrocytes, oligodendrocytes or their precursors. Gliomas can be classified into several groups according to their histologic characteristics, the most malignant of the gliomas is glioblastoma multiforme. In contrast to the long-standing and well-defined histopathology, the underlying molecular and genetic bases for gliomas are only just emerging. Many genetic alterations have been identified in human gliomas, however, establishing unequivocal correlation between these genetic alterations and gliomagenesis requires accurate animal models for this disease. Here we are reviewing the existing animal models for gliomas with different strategies and our current knowledge on the important issues about this disease, such as activation of signal transduction pathways, disruption of cell cycle arrest pathways, cell-of-origin of gliomas, and therapeutic strategies.     

Inhibition of Glioma Cell Lysosome Exocytosis Inhibits Glioma Invasion

Cancer cells invade by secreting enzymes that degrade the extracellular matrix and these are sequestered in lysosomal vesicles. In this study, the effects of the selective lysosome lysing drug GPN and the lysosome exocytosis inhibitor vacuolin-1 on lysosome exocytosis were studied to determine their effect on glioma cell migration and invasion. Both GPN and vacuolin-1 evidently inhibited migration and invasion in transwell experiments and scratch experiments. There are more lysosomes located on the cell membrane of glioma cells than of astrocytes. GPN decreased the lysosome number on the cell membrane. We found that rab27A was expressed in glioma cells, and colocalized with cathepsin D in lysosome. RNAi-Rab27A inhibited lysosome cathepsin D exocytosis and glioma cell invasion in an in vitro assay. Inhibition of cathepsin D inhibited glioma cell migration. The data suggest that the inhibition of lysosome exocytosis from glioma cells plays an important modulatory role in their migration and invasion.     

多种胶质瘤细胞系中获取胶质瘤干细胞方法的研究

目的:进一步证明胶质瘤干细胞是广泛存在的,并寻找一种简洁的方法从不同胶质瘤细胞系中提取肿瘤干细胞。方法:将胶质瘤细胞以合适的密度接种于96孔板中,获取胶质瘤干细胞,并通过检测其自我更新能力、多向分化能力、成瘤能力及胶质瘤干细胞标记物的表达情况对其进行鉴定。结果:多种细胞系中均成功获取了胶质瘤干细胞。并且这细胞球表达神经干细胞的标志物,不表达神经细胞分化标志物,同时又有多向分化的能力,仅5000个细胞就可以在裸鼠颅内成瘤。结论:我们的研究结果表明胶质瘤干细胞是广泛存在的,并为以后进一步研究胶质瘤干细胞的特性及靶向胶质瘤干细胞的药物做铺垫。     

多种胶质瘤细胞系中获取胶质瘤干细胞方法的研究

目的：进一步证明胶质瘤干细胞是广泛存在的,并寻找一种简洁的方法从不同胶质瘤细胞系中提取肿瘤干细胞。方法：将胶质瘤细胞以合适的密度接种于96孔板中,获取胶质瘤干细胞,并通过检测其自我更新能力、多向分化能力、成瘤能力及胶质瘤干细胞标记物的表达情况对其进行鉴定。结果：多种细胞系中均成功获取了胶质瘤干细胞。并且这细胞球表达神经干细胞的标志物,不袁达神经细胞分化标志物,同时又有多向分化的能力,仅5000个细胞就可以在裸鼠颅内成瘤。结论：我们的研究结果表明胶质瘤干细胞是广泛存在的,并为以后进一步研究胶质瘤干细胞的特性及靶向胶质瘤干细胞的药物做铺垫。     

Glioma models.

Gliomas are primary central nervous system tumors that arise from astrocytes, oligodendrocytes or their precursors. Gliomas can be classified into several groups according to their histologic characteristics, the most malignant of the gliomas is glioblastoma multiforme. In contrast to the long-standing and well-defined histopathology, the underlying molecular and genetic bases for gliomas are only just emerging. Many genetic alterations have been identified in human gliomas, however, establishing unequivocal correlation between these genetic alterations and gliomagenesis requires accurate animal models for this disease. Here we are reviewing the existing animal models for gliomas with different strategies and our current knowledge on the important issues about this disease, such as activation of signal transduction pathways, disruption of cell cycle arrest pathways, cell-of-origin of gliomas, and therapeutic strategies.     

神经胶质瘤的治疗策略

神经胶质瘤是来源于神经上皮的肿瘤,是颅内最常见的恶性肿瘤,约占中枢神经系统肿瘤的40%~50%。主要分为星型细胞瘤、胶质母细胞瘤、少突胶质细胞瘤、髓母细胞瘤、室管膜瘤等。如何提高胶质瘤的治疗效果,提高病人的生命质量,仍是神经外科医生面临的巨大难题。     

神经胶质瘤的治疗策略

神经胶质瘤是来源于神经上皮的肿瘤,是颅内最常见的恶性肿瘤,约占中枢神经系统肿瘤的40%~50%。主要分为星型细胞瘤、胶质母细胞瘤、少突胶质细胞瘤、髓母细胞瘤、室管膜瘤等。如何提高胶质瘤的治疗效果,提高病人的生命质量,仍是神经外科医生面临的巨大难题。     

Glioma Stemlike Cells Enhance the Killing of Glioma Differentiated Cells by Cytotoxic Lymphocytes

Glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive primary brain tumor, is maintained by a subpopulation of glioma cells with self-renewal properties that are able to recapitulate the entire tumor even after surgical resection or chemo-radiotherapy. This typifies the vast heterogeneity of this tumor with the two extremes represented on one end by the glioma stemlike cells (GSC) and on the other by the glioma differentiated cells (GDC). Interestingly, GSC are more sensitive to immune effector cells than the GDC counterpart. However, how GSC impact on the killing on the GDC and vice versa is not clear. Using a newly developed cytotoxicity assay allowing to simultaneously monitor cytotoxic lymphocytes-mediated killing of GSC and GDC, we found that although GSC were always better killed and that their presence enhanced the killing of GDC. In contrast, an excess of GDC had a mild protective effect on the killing of GSC, depending on the CTL type. Overall, our results suggest that during combination therapy, immunotherapy would be the most effective after prior treatment with conventional therapies.     

小窝蛋白-1与脑胶质瘤

小窝蛋白-1（caveolin-1,Cav-1）是胞膜窖（caveolae）的标志性蛋白质。Cav-1在多种细胞的生命活动中起重要作用。大量证据表明,Cav-1参与乳腺癌、肝细胞癌、胰腺癌、前列腺癌、肾透明细胞癌等多种肿瘤的发生发展过程。胶质瘤是中枢神经系统恶性肿瘤之一,由于脑血屏障的存在,很多药物很难到达病灶,因而死亡率极高。近年来发现,Cav-1是胶质瘤细胞增殖的负调控因子,能够降低胶质瘤的迁移和侵袭能力。此外,Cav-1能够增加胶质瘤血瘤屏障的通透性。本文简要综述了近年来Cav-1在脑胶质瘤发生发展及其对血瘤屏障的调节作用的新进展,旨在为胶质瘤的临床治疗提供新的思路。     

BRMS1 Suppresses Glioma Progression by Regulating Invasion,Migration and Adhesion of Glioma Cells

Breast cancer metastasis suppressor 1 (BRMS1) is a metastasis suppressor gene in several solid tumors. However, the expression and function of BRMS1 in glioma have not been reported. In this study, we investigated whether BRMS1 play a role in glioma pathogenesis. Using the tissue microarray technology, we found that BRMS1 expression is significantly decreased in glioma compared with tumor adjacent normal brain tissue (P<0.01, χ² test) and reduced BRMS1 staining is associated with WHO stages (P<0.05, χ² test). We also found that BRMS1 was significantly downregulated in glioma cell lines compared to normal human astrocytes (P<0.01, χ² test). Furthermore, we demonstrated that BRMS1 overexpression inhibited glioma cell invasion by suppressing uPA, NF-κB, MMP-2 expression and MMP-2 enzyme activity. Moreover, our data showed that overexpression of BRMS1 inhibited glioma cell migration and adhesion capacity compared with the control group through the Src-FAK pathway. Taken together, this study suggested that BRMS1 has a role in glioma development and progression by regulating invasion, migration and adhesion activities of cancer cells.     

Glioma proteomics: Status and perspectives

High grade gliomas are the most common brain tumors in adults and their malignant nature makes them the fourth biggest cause of cancer death. Major efforts in neuro-oncology research are needed to reach similar progress in treatment efficacy as that achieved for other cancers in recent years. In addition to the urgent need to identify novel effective drug targets against malignant gliomas, the search for glioma biomarkers and grade specific protein signatures will provide a much needed contribution to diagnosis, prognosis, treatment decision and assessment of treatment response. Over the past years glioma proteomics has been attempted at different levels, including proteome analysis of patient biopsies and bodily fluids, of glioma cell lines and animal models. Here we provide an extensive review of the outcome of these studies in terms of protein identifications (protein numbers and regulated proteins), with an emphasis on the methods used and the limitations of the studies with regard to biomarker discovery. This is followed by a perspective on novel technologies and on the potential future contribution of proteomics in a broad sense to understanding glioma biology.     

胶质瘤发病相关蛋白1与肿瘤

胶质瘤发病相关蛋白1（glioma pathogenesis-related protein 1,GLIPR1）隶属于CAP蛋白超家族,由1个指导分泌的信号肽、1个保守的富含半胱氨酸的结构域及1个跨膜结构域组成CAP。近年研究表明,胶质瘤发病相关蛋白1启动子甲基化水平决定了其在胶质瘤和黑色素瘤中的表达上调。而在前列腺癌、肺癌、骨肉瘤以及白血病等肿瘤中表达下调。在不同类型的肿瘤中,GLIPR1通过不同的信号通路参与调控肿瘤的发展进程。本文针对胶质瘤发病相关蛋白1参与调控多种肿瘤发生及发展的机制进行综述,以期为上述肿瘤的诊断与治疗提供重要的线索。     

胶质瘤的免疫治疗策略及进展

胶质瘤是最常见的原发性颅内肿瘤之一,具有较高的发病率及死亡率。目前,传统的手术治疗辅助放化疗效果不佳。肿瘤的免疫治疗作为一种新兴的疗法在胶质瘤的治疗中已经取得了一定的疗效。本文将全面的总结归纳胶质瘤的三类免疫治疗方法:主动免疫疗法、被动免疫疗法和免疫调节疗法的内容以及现阶段的进展,并提出胶质瘤的免疫治疗潜在的问题:如接受免疫治疗的患者的免疫状态评估体系不健全、缺乏个性化治疗手段、经济效益以及伦理等问题。同时本文将提出免疫治疗在胶质瘤应用上的展望:1)采用手术治疗、放化疗与免疫治疗相结合的立体式鸡尾酒疗法,在增强各种治疗方法疗效的同时弥补传统治疗方法的不足;2)寻找合适的免疫治疗靶点;3)重点研究结合了过继性细胞免疫治疗与体液免疫治疗优势的治疗方法:嵌合抗原受体修饰的T细胞治疗胶质瘤。     

胶质瘤的分子靶向治疗

恶性胶质瘤是最常见的中枢神经系统肿瘤,随着对肿瘤分子机制理解的深入,分子靶向疗法渐成热点。这一新疗法能改善肿瘤患者的治疗效果,同时降低药物毒性,属于肿瘤的生物治疗范畴,其原理主要是针对在肿瘤发生发展过程中一些起关键作用的分子机制进行干预而达到抗肿瘤的目的。其有助于提高患者生存质量、延长生存时间,为攻克胶质瘤带来了希望。     

Integrin Inhibitor Suppresses Bevacizumab-Induced Glioma Invasion

Glioblastoma is known to secrete high levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and clinical studies with bevacizumab, a monoclonal antibody to VEGF, have demonstrated convincing therapeutic benefits in glioblastoma patients. However, its induction of invasive proliferation has also been reported. We examined the effects of treatment with cilengitide, an integrin inhibitor, on bevacizumab-induced invasive changes in glioma. U87ΔEGFR cells were stereotactically injected into the brain of nude mice or rats. Five days after tumor implantation, cilengitide and bevacizumab were administered intraperitoneally three times a week. At 18 days after tumor implantation, the brains were removed and observed histopathologically. Next, the bevacizumab and cilengitide combination group was compared to the bevacizumab monotherapy group using microarray analysis. Bevacizumab treatment led to increased cell invasion in spite of decreased angiogenesis. When the rats were treated with a combination of bevacizumab and cilengitide, the depth of tumor invasion was significantly less than with only bevacizumab. Pathway analysis demonstrated the inhibition of invasion-associated genes such as the integrin-mediated cell adhesion pathway in the combination group. This study showed that the combination of bevacizumab with cilengitide exerted its anti-invasive effect. The elucidation of this mechanism might contribute to the treatment of bevacizumab-refractory glioma.