| 1. |
- Bjerkvig, Rolf, et al.
(författare)
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Cancer stem cells and angiogenesis
- 2009
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Ingår i: Seminars in Cancer Biology. - London : Academic Press. - 1044-579X .- 1096-3650. ; 19:5, s. 279-284
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Most cancers contain tumor cells that display stem cell-like characteristics. How and when such cells appear in tumors are not clear, but may involve both stochastic as well as hierarchical events Most. likely, tumor cells that display stem cell-like characteristics can undergo asymmetric cell division giving rise to tumor cells that trigger angiogenic programs. As normal stem cells the cancer stem-like cells seem to adapt to hypoxic environments and will use metabolic pathways that involve increased conversion of glucose to pyruvate and lactate, and a concomitant decrease in mitochondrial metabolism and mitochondrial mass. The molecular pathways responsible for inducing glycolysis are now being explored. These pathways seem to mediate multiple metabolic functions in cancer stem-like cells, leading to a highly migratory and angiogenesis-independent phenotype. Future challenges will be to identify and validate molecular targets involved in anaerobic metabolic pathways active in cancer stem-like cells and to determine how these pathways differ from regulatory pathways involved in normal stem cell function.
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| 2. |
- Boije, Maria
(författare)
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Investigations of Proneural Glioblastoma to Identify Novel Therapeutic Targets
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Malignant glioma is a highly lethal and destructive disease with no proper cure. We have investigated some of the hallmarks of cancer in connection to glioma and found ways to disrupt these and prevent tumor growth. The work is done within the context of a glioma subtype distinguished by activation of PDGF signaling termed the proneural subtype. In two of the studies we have investigated mechanisms regulating the glioma cells themselves, and in the other two we have focused on the tumor stroma. In the first study, glioma-initiating cells were isolated in defined serum free culture medium from PDGF-B driven murine glioma and shown to be independent of EGF and FGF2 for self-renewal and proliferation. When cultured in serum the GICs displayed an aberrant differentiation pattern that was reversible. Specific depletion of the transduced PDGF-B caused a loss of self-renewal and tumorigenicity and induced oligodendrocyte differentiation. The transcription factor S-SOX5 has previously been shown to have a tumor suppressive effect on PDGF-B induced murine glioma, and to induce cellular senescence in PDGF-B stimulated cells in vitro. We found that S-SOX5 had a negative effect on proliferation of newly established human glioma cells cultured under stem cell conditions. We also revealed a connection between alterations causing up-regulation of SOX5 with the proneural subgroup and a tendency towards co-occurrence with PDGFRA alterations. Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from existing ones, is an important hallmark for glioma malignancy. We found that the anti-angiogenic protein HRG had a negative effect on glioma progression in PDGF-B induced experimental tumors and that HRG was able to completely prevent formation of glioblastomas. Subsequently it was shown that HRG could skew pro-tumorigenic tumor associated macrophages into an anti-tumorigenic phenotype. Stromal cells had not previously been fully investigated in gliomas. We observed a correlation between tumor malignancy and increased numbers of tumor-associated macrophages as well as pericytes in PDGF-B induced gliomas. There was also a correlation between tumor grade and vessel functionality that had not previously been shown. Our results offer further understanding of gliomagenesis and present possible future therapies.
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| 3. |
- Faraz, Mahmood, 1978-
(författare)
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Investigations of Leucine-rich repeats and immunoglobulin-like domain-proteins 1 and 2 (LRIG1 and LRIG2) and their genes in cancer
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The mammalian leucine-rich repeats and immunoglobulin-like domains (LRIG) gene family consists of three different members, LRIG1, LRIG2, and LRIG3. These genes are expressed in all human and mouse tissues analyzed to date. All LRIG proteins share similar and evolutionary conserved structural domains including a leucine-rich repeat domain, three immunoglobulin-like domains, a transmembrane domain, and a cytosolic tail. Since the discovery of this family, around 20 years ago, various research groups have shown the importance of this family in cancer biology and prognosis. The aim of this thesis was to further investigate the role of LRIG1 and LRIG2 in cancer.To investigate the roles of LRIG1 and LRIG2 in physiology and gliomagenesis, we generated Lrig1- and Lrig2-deficient mice and induced platelet-derived growth factor B (PDGFB)-driven gliomagenesis. We studied the effects of Lrig2 ablation on mouse development and survival and investigated if the ablation of Lrig1 or Lrig2 affects the incidence or malignancy of induced gliomas. We also investigated if Lrig2 ablation affects Pdgfr signaling in mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). Additionally, we analyzed the effects of ectopic LRIG1 expression in human primary glioblastoma cell lines TB101 and TB107, in vivo and in vitro. We reported no macroscopic anatomical defect but reduced growth and increased spontaneous mortality rate in Lrig2-deficient mice. However, the Lrig2-deficient mice were protected against the induced gliomagenesis. Lrig2-deficient MEFs showed faster kinetics of induction of immediate-early genes in response to PDGFB stimulation, whereas the phosphorylations of Pdgfra, Pdgfrb, Erk1/2, and Akt1 appeared unaltered. Lrig1-heterozygote mice showed a higher incidence of high-grade tumors (grade IV) compared to wildtype mice, demonstrating a haploinsufficient function of Lrig1. LRIG1 overexpression suppressed TB107 cell invasion in vivo and in vitro, which was partially mediated through the suppression of the MET receptor tyrosine kinase.To identify LRIG1-interacting proteins, we used the yeast-two hybrid system and data-mined the Bio-Plex network of high throughput protein-protein interaction database. To study the function of interactors, we used a triple co-transfection system to overexpress LRIG1 and PDGFRA and downregulate endogenous levels of interactors by short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs), simultaneously. This analysis demonstrated that CNPY3, CNPY4, GAL3ST1, GML, HLA-DRA, LRIG2, LRIG3, LRRC40, PON2, RAB4A, and ZBTB16 were important for the PDGFRA-downregulating function of LRIG1.To investigate the clinical significance of LRIG1 copy number alterations (CNAs) in breast cancer, we used droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) to analyze 423 breast cancer tumors. We found that LRIG1 CNAs were significantly different in steroid-receptor-positive vs steroid-receptor-negative tumors and in ERBB2-amplified vs ERBB2-non-amplified tumors. In the whole cohort, patients with LRIG1 loss or gain had a worse metastasis-free survival than patients with normal LRIG1 copy numbers, however, among the early-stage breast cancer subgroup, this difference was not significant. In summary, Lrig1 behaved like a haploinsufficient tumor suppressor gene in malignant glioma, whereas Lrig2 appeared to promote malignant glioma. Our functional analysis of LRIG1 interactome uncovered several unanticipated and novel proteins that might be important for the regulation of receptor tyrosine kinases by LRIG1. LRIG1 CNAs predicted metastasis-free survival time in breast cancer. Hopefully, our findings might lead to a better understanding of the regulation of growth factor signaling and its importance in cancer biology and prognosis.
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| 4. |
- Fischer, Walter, et al.
(författare)
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Human alpha-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells (HAMLET) kills human glioblastoma cells in brain xenografts by an apoptosis-like mechanism and prolongs survival.
- 2004
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Ingår i: Cancer Research. - 1538-7445. ; 64:6, s. 2105-2112
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Malignant brain tumors present a major therapeutic challenge because no selective or efficient treatment is available. Here, we demonstrate that intratumoral administration of human α-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells (HAMLET) prolongs survival in a human glioblastoma (GBM) xenograft model, by selective induction of tumor cell apoptosis. HAMLET is a protein-lipid complex that is formed from α-lactalbumin when the protein changes its tertiary conformation and binds oleic acid as a cofactor. HAMLET induces apoptosis in a wide range of tumor cells in vitro, but the therapeutic effect in vivo has not been examined. In this study, invasively growing human GBM tumors were established in nude rats (Han:rnu/rnu Rowett, n = 20) by transplantation of human GBM biopsy spheroids. After 7 days, HAMLET was administered by intracerebral convection-enhanced delivery for 24 h into the tumor area; and α-lactalbumin, the native, folded variant of the same protein, was used as a control. HAMLET reduced the intracranial tumor volume and delayed the onset of pressure symptoms in the tumor-bearing rats. After 8 weeks, all α-lactalbumin-treated rats had developed pressure symptoms, but the HAMLET-treated rats remained asymptomatic. Magnetic resonance imaging scans revealed large differences in tumor volume (456 versus 63 mm3). HAMLET caused apoptosis in vivo in the tumor but not in adjacent intact brain tissue or in nontransformed human astrocytes, and no toxic side effects were observed. The results identify HAMLET as a new candidate in cancer therapy and suggest that HAMLET should be additionally explored as a novel approach to controlling GBM progression.
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| 5. |
- Keunen, Olivier, et al.
(författare)
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Anti-VEGF treatment reduces blood supply and increases tumor cell invasion in glioblastoma
- 2011
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 108:9, s. 3749-3754
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Bevacizumab, an antibody against vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), is a promising, yet controversial, drug in human glioblastoma treatment (GBM). Its effects on tumor burden, recurrence, and vascular physiology are unclear. We therefore determined the tumor response to bevacizumab at the phenotypic, physiological, and molecular level in a clinically relevant intracranial GBM xenograft model derived from patient tumor spheroids. Using anatomical and physiological magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we show that bevacizumab causes a strong decrease in contrast enhancement while having only a marginal effect on tumor growth. Interestingly, dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI revealed a significant reduction of the vascular supply, as evidenced by a decrease in intratumoral blood flow and volume and, at the morphological level, by a strong reduction of large- and medium-sized blood vessels. Electron microscopy revealed fewer mitochondria in the treated tumor cells. Importantly, this was accompanied by a 68% increase in infiltrating tumor cells in the brain parenchyma. At the molecular level we observed an increase in lactate and alanine metabolites, together with an induction of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α and an activation of the phosphatidyl-inositol-3-kinase pathway. These data strongly suggest that vascular remodeling induced by anti-VEGF treatment leads to a more hypoxic tumor microenvironment. This favors a metabolic change in the tumor cells toward glycolysis, which leads to enhanced tumor cell invasion into the normal brain. The present work underlines the need to combine anti-angiogenic treatment in GBMs with drugs targeting specific signaling or metabolic pathways linked to the glycolytic phenotype.
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| 6. |
- Miletic, Hrvoje, et al.
(författare)
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Anti-VEGF therapies for malignant glioma : treatment effects and escape mechanisms
- 2009
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Ingår i: Expert opinion on therapeutic targets. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1472-8222 .- 1744-7631. ; 13:4, s. 455-468
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) has a very poor prognosis and novel treatment strategies are urgently needed. GBM appears to be an optimal target for anti-angiogenic therapy as the tumour shows a high degree of endothelial cell proliferation and pro-angiogenic growth factor expression. Objective: To examine the role of angiogenic factors (particularly VEGF) in glioma and whether inhibition of these factors can be used as a treatment.Methods: A review of relevant literature.Results/conclusions: Anti-angiogenic therapy has fulfilled the proof of concept in glioma animal models. In glioma patients, the efficacy of anti-angiogenic mono-therapies initially has been disappointing. However recent clinical trials combining bevacizumab, an anti-VEGF antibody, with chemotherapy reported very encouraging response rates. Although randomized phase III clinical trials with anti-angiogenic molecules are not yet available for GBM patients, this treatment regimen is already applied off protocol in several clinical centers. It should be kept in mind though that tumours can develop escape mechanisms. In particular invasive cells, which migrate away from the highly vascularized tumour core, are not targeted by anti-angiogenic therapies. In our opinion, the future of anti-angiogenic therapy will rely on a combination strategy including chemotherapy and drugs that target invasive glioma cells.
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| 7. |
- Svanborg, Catharina, et al.
(författare)
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HAMLET kills tumor cells by an apoptosis-like mechanism--cellular, molecular, and therapeutic aspects.
- 2003
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Ingår i: Advances in Cancer Research. - 0065-230X. ; 88, s. 1-29
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- HAMLET (human α-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells) is a protein-lipid complex that induces apoptosis-like death in tumor cells, but leaves fully differentiated cells unaffected. This review summarizes the information on the in vivo effects of HAMLET in patients and tumor models, on the tumor cell biology, and on the molecular characteristics of the complex. HAMLET limits the progression of human glioblastomas in a xenograft model and removes skin papillomas in patients. This broad anti-tumor activity includes >40 different lymphomas and carcinomas and apoptosis is independent of p53 or bcl-2. In tumor cells, HAMLET enters the cytoplasm, translocates to the perinuclear area, and enters the nuclei, where it accumulates. HAMLET binds strongly to histones and disrupts the chromatin organization. In the cytoplasm, HAMLET targets ribosomes and activates caspases. The formation of HAMLET relies on the propensity of α-lactalbumin to alter its conformation when the strongly bound Ca2+ ion is released and the protein adopts the apo-conformation that exposes a new fatty acid binding site. Oleic acid (C18:1,9 cis) fits this site with high specificity, and stabilizes the altered protein conformation. The results illustrate how protein folding variants may be beneficial, and how their formation in peripheral tissues may depend on the folding change and the availability of the lipid cofactor. One example is the acid pH in the stomach of the breast-fed child that promotes the formation of HAMLET This mechanism may contribute to the protective effect of breastfeeding against childhood tumors. We propose that HAMLET should be explored as a novel approach to tumor therapy.
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| 8. |
- Thulin, Åsa, et al.
(författare)
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Activated platelets provide a functional microenvironment for the antiangiogenic fragment of histidine-rich glycoprotein
- 2009
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Ingår i: Molecular Cancer Research. - 1541-7786 .- 1557-3125. ; 7:11, s. 1792-1802
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The angiogenesis inhibitor histidine-rich glycoprotein (HRG) constitutes one of several examples of molecules regulating both angiogenesis and hemostasis. The antiangiogenic properties of HRG are mediated via its proteolytically released histidine- and proline-rich (His/Pro-rich) domain.Using a combination of immunohistochemistry and massspectrometry, we here provide biochemical evidence for thepresence of a proteolytic peptide, corresponding to the antiangiogenic domain of HRG, in vivo in human tissue. This finding supports a role for HRG as an endogenous regulator of angiogenesis. Interestingly, the His/Pro-rich peptide bound to the vessel wall in tissue from cancer patients but not to the vasculature in tissue from healthy persons.Moreover, the His/Pro-rich peptide was found in close association with platelets. Relesate from in vitro–activated platelets promoted binding of the His/Pro-rich domain of HRG to endothelial cells, an effect mediated by Zn2+.Previous studies have shown that zinc-dependent bindingof the His/Pro-rich domain of HRG to heparan sulfate on endothelial cells is required for inhibition of angiogenesis.We describe a novel mechanism to increase the local concentration and activity of an angiogenesis inhibitor,which may reflect a host response to counteract angiogenesis during pathologic conditions. Our finding that tumor angiogenesis is elevated in HRG-deficient mice supports this conclusion.
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| 9. |
- Torsvik, Anja, et al.
(författare)
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U-251 revisited : genetic drift and phenotypic consequences of long-term cultures of glioblastoma cells
- 2014
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Ingår i: Cancer Medicine. - : Wiley. - 2045-7634. ; 3:4, s. 812-824
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is well known that in vitro subculture represents a selection pressure on cell lines, and over time this may result in a genetic drift in the cancer cells. In addition, long-term cultures harbor the risk of cross-contamination with other cell lines. The consequences may have major impact on experimental results obtained in various laboratories, where the cell lines no longer reflect the original tumors that they are supposed to represent. Much neglected in the scientific community is a close monitoring of cell cultures by regular phenotypic and genetic characterization. In this report, we present a thorough characterization of the commonly used glioblastoma (GBM) model U-251, which in numerous publications has been wrongly identified as U-373, due to an earlier cross-contamination. In this work, the original U-251 and three subclones of U-251, commonly referred to as U-251 or U-373, were analyzed with regard to their DNA profile, morphology, phenotypic expression, and growth pattern. By array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH), we show that only the original low-passaged U-251 cells, established in the 1960s, maintain a DNA copy number resembling a typical GBM profile, whereas all long-term subclones lost the typical GBM profile. Also the long-term passaged subclones displayed variations in phenotypic marker expression and showed an increased growth rate in vitro and a more aggressive growth in vivo. Taken together, the variations in genotype and phenotype as well as differences in growth characteristics may explain different results reported in various laboratories related to the U-251 cell line.
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| 10. |
- Zhang, Lei, 1986-
(författare)
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Molecular Regulation of Vascular Abnormalization and Its Role in Glioma
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Glioblastoma, grade IV glioma, is the one of the deadliest cancers, with a median survival of only 12-15 months despite aggressive treatment including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. One hallmark of glioblastoma is the morphological and functional abnormalization of tumor blood vessels. The molecular mechanisms involved in this process and their functional and pathological implications are not yet fully understood. Indentification of molecular mechanisms that underlie vascular abnormalization in GBM is necessary to develop efficient treatment regimens for normalizing vascular function.By analyzing the RNA-content of laser microdissected vessels from human biobank specimens using affymetrix microarray analysis, we found that the abnormal glioblastoma vessels have a distinct gene expression signature. We found 95 genes which were differentially expressed in grade IV glioma vessels as compared to vessels in low grade tumors and control brain. 78 of which were up-regulated while 17 were down-regulated. Many of these genes are regulated by VEGFA or TGFβ signaling. In addition, we show a significant increase in Smad signaling complexes in the vasculature of human glioblastoma in situ, suggesting that TGFβ signaling may play important role in vessel abnormalization.CD93 is a single-pass transmembrane glycoprotein, which we found to be up-regulated in high grade glioma. Vascular expression of CD93 correlates to tumor grade in human glioma. Moreover, high grade glioma patients with high CD93 expression in the vasculature are associate with poor prognosis. We found that knocking down CD93 in endothelial cells with siRNA clearly impaired endothelial cell adhesion, migration and tube formation due to defects in cytoskeletal rearrangement. In addition, tumor growth was severely delayed in the CD93-/- mice.Pleiotrophin, a multi-functional heparin-binding growth factor, promotes glioma growth in several ways. Here, we identify pleiotrophin as a driver of vascular abnormalization in glioma. We found that high pleiotrophin expression correlates with poor survival of patients with astrocytomas. Pleiotrophin overexpression in orthotopic GL261 gliomas increases microvessel density, enhances tumour growth and decreases survival. Vessels in pleiotrophin-expressing gliomas are poorly perfused and display a high degree of abnormality, coinciding with elevated levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) deposited in direct proximity to the vasculature. In addition to its role in vessel abnormalization, pleiotrophin enhanced PDGF-B-induced gliomagenesis. Taken together, our results indicate that PTN has an important role in glioma initiation and establishment of the characteristic abnormal tumor vasculature in glioblastoma, identifying PTN as a potential target for therapy.
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