Identification of proteins involved in neural progenitor cell targeting of gliomas

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Glioblastoma are highly aggressive tumors with an average survival time of 12 months with currently available treatment. We have previously shown that specific embryonic neural progenitor cells (NPC) have the potential to target glioma growth in the CNS of rats. The neural progenitor cell treatment can cure approximately 40% of the animals with malignant gliomas with no trace of a tumor burden 6 months after finishing the experiment. Furthermore, the NPCs have been shown to respond to signals from the tumor environment resulting in specific migration towards the tumor. Based on these results we wanted to investigate what factors could influence the growth and progression of gliomas in our rodent model.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using microarrays we screened for candidate genes involved in the functional mechanism of tumor inhibition by comparing glioma cell lines to neural progenitor cells with or without anti-tumor activity. The expression of candidate genes was confirmed at RNA level by quantitative RT-PCR and at the protein level by Western blots and immunocytochemistry. Moreover, we have developed <it>in vitro </it>assays to mimic the antitumor effect seen <it>in vivo</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We identified several targets involved in glioma growth and migration, specifically CXCL1, CD81, TPT1, Gas6 and AXL proteins. We further showed that follistatin secretion from the NPC has the potential to decrease tumor proliferation. <it>In vitro </it>co-cultures of NPC and tumor cells resulted in the inhibition of tumor growth. The addition of antibodies against proteins selected by gene and protein expression analysis either increased or decreased the proliferation rate of the glioma cell lines <it>in vitro</it>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results suggest that these identified factors might be useful starting points for performing future experiments directed towards a potential therapy against malignant gliomas.</p

Efficient transduction of neurons using Ross River glycoprotein-pseudotyped lentiviral vectors

Lentiviral vectors are promising tools for CNS gene transfer since they efficiently transduce the cells of the nervous system in vivo. In this study, we have investigated the transduction efficiency of lentiviral vectors pseudotyped with Ross River virus glycoprotein (RRV-G) (RRV-G-pseudotyped lentiviral vectors (RRV-LV)). The RRV is an alphavirus with an extremely broad host range, including the cells of the central nervous system. Previous studies have shown that lentiviral vectors can be efficiently pseudotyped with this envelope protein and have demonstrated promising features of such vectors, including the possibility to establish stable producer cell lines. After injection of RRV-LV expressing green fluorescent protein into different structures in the rat brain we found efficient transduction of both neurons and glial cells. By using two cell-type-specific promoters, neuron-specific enolase and human glial fibrillary acidic protein, we demonstrated cell-specific transgene expression in the desired cell type. Ross River virus glycoprotein-pseudotyped lentiviral vectors also transduced human neural progenitor cells in vitro, showing that receptors for the RRV-G are present on human neural cells

Neural precursor cells induce cell death of high-grade astrocytomas through stimulation of TRPV1

Primary astrocytomas of grade 3 or 4 according to the classification system of the World Health Organization (high-grade astrocytomas or HGAs) are preponderant among adults and are almost invariably fatal despite the use of multimodal therapy. Here we show that the juvenile brain has an endogenous defense mechanism against HGAs. Neural precursor cells (NPCs) migrate to HGAs, reduce glioma expansion and prolong survival time by releasing endovanilloids that activate the vanilloid receptor (transient receptor potential vanilloid subfamily member-1 or TRPV1) on HGA cells. TRPV1 is highly expressed in tumor and weakly expressed in tumor-free brain. TRPV1 stimulation triggers tumor cell death through the branch of the endoplasmic reticulum stress pathway that is controlled by activating transcription factor-3 (ATF3). The antitumorigenic response of NPCs is lost with aging. NPC-mediated tumor suppression can be mimicked in the adult brain by systemic administration of the synthetic vanilloid arvanil, suggesting that TRPV1 agonists have potential as new HGA therapeutics

Stem Cell Transplantation in Brain Tumors: A New Field for Molecular Imaging?

Neural stem cells have been proposed as a new and promising treatment modality in various pathologies of the central nervous system, including malignant brain tumors. However, the underlying mechanism by which neural stem cells target tumor areas remains elusive. Monitoring of these cells is currently done by use of various modes of molecular imaging, such as optical imaging, magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography, which is a novel technology for visualizing metabolism and signal transduction to gene expression. In this new context, the microenvironment of (malignant) brain tumors and the blood-brain barrier gains increased interest. The authors of this review give a unique overview of the current molecular-imaging techniques used in different therapeutic experimental brain tumor models in relation to neural stem cells. Such methods for molecular imaging of gene-engineered neural stem/progenitor cells are currently used to trace the location and temporal level of expression of therapeutic and endogenous genes in malignant brain tumors, closing the gap between in vitro and in vivo integrative biology of disease in neural stem cell transplantation