A protein typically associated with neurodegenerative diseases like
Alzheimer’s might help scientists explore how gliomas, a type of
cancerous brain tumor, become so aggressive.
The new study, in mouse models and human brain tumor tissues, was published in Science Translational Medicine and found a significant expression of the protein TAU in glioma cells, especially in those patients with better prognoses.
Patients with glioma are given a better prognosis when their tumor
expresses a mutation in a gene called isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1).
In this international collaborative study led by the Instituto de Salud
Carlos III-UFIEC in Madrid, Spain, those IDHI mutations stimulated the
expression of TAU. Then, the presence of TAU acted as a brake for the
formation of new blood vessels, which are necessary for the aggressive
behavior of the tumors.
“We report that the levels of microtubule-associated protein TAU, which have been associated with neurodegenerative diseases,
are epigenetically controlled by the balance between normal and mutant
IDH1/2 in mouse and human gliomas,” says co-author Maria G. Castro,
Ph.D., a professor of neurosurgery and cell and developmental biology at Michigan Medicine. “In IDH1/2 mutant tumors, we found that expression levels of TAU decreased with tumor progression.”
That means levels of TAU could be used as a biomarker for tumor progression in mutant IDH1/2 gliomas, Castro says.
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