Potential Therapeutic Effects of the Neural Stem Cell-Targeting Antibody Nilo1 in Patient-Derived Glioblastoma Stem Cells

Progress in Glioma Stem Cell Research

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) represents a diverse spectrum of primary tumors notorious for their resistance to established therapeutic modalities. Despite aggressive interventions like surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, these tumors, due to factors such as the blood-brain barrier, tumor heterogeneity, glioma stem cells (GSCs), drug efflux pumps, and DNA damage repair mechanisms, persist beyond complete isolation, resulting in dismal outcomes for glioma patients. Presently, the standard initial approach comprises surgical excision followed by concurrent chemotherapy, where temozolomide (TMZ) serves as the foremost option in managing GBM patients. Subsequent adjuvant chemotherapy follows this regimen. Emerging therapeutic approaches encompass immunotherapy, including checkpoint inhibitors, and targeted treatments, such as bevacizumab, aiming to exploit vulnerabilities within GBM cells. Nevertheless, there exists a pressing imperative to devise innovative strategies for both diagnosing and treating GBM. This review emphasizes the current knowledge of GSC biology, molecular mechanisms, and associations with various signals and/or pathways, such as the epidermal growth factor receptor, PI3K/AKT/mTOR, HGFR/c-MET, NF-κB, Wnt, Notch, and STAT3 pathways. Metabolic reprogramming in GSCs has also been reported with the prominent activation of the glycolytic pathway, comprising aldehyde dehydrogenase family genes. We also discuss potential therapeutic approaches to GSC targets and currently used inhibitors, as well as their mode of action on GSC targets.

Ceramide Composition in Exosomes for Characterization of Glioblastoma Stem-Like Cell Phenotypes

Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most malignant central nervous system tumor types. Comparative analysis of GBM tissues has rendered four major molecular subtypes. From them, two molecular subtypes are mainly found in their glioblastoma cancer stem-like cells (GSCs) derived in vitro: proneural (PN) and mesenchymal (MES) with nodular (MES-N) and semi-nodular (MES-SN) disseminations, which exhibit different metabolic, growth, and malignancy properties. Many studies suggest that cancer cells communicate between them, and the surrounding microenvironment, via exosomes. Identifying molecular markers that allow the specific isolation of GSC-derived exosomes is key in the development of new therapies. However, the differential exosome composition produced by main GSCs remains unknown. The aim of this study was to determine ceramide (Cer) composition, one of the critical lipids in both cells and their cell-derived exosomes, from the main three GSC phenotypes using mass spectrometry-based lipidomics. GSCs from human tissue samples and their cell-derived exosomes were measured using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC/Q-TOF-MS) in an untargeted analysis. Complete characterization of the ceramide profile, in both cells and cell-derived exosomes from GSC phenotypes, showed differential distributions among them. Results indicate that such differences of ceramide are chain-length dependent. Significant changes for the C16 Cer and C24:1 Cer and their ratio were observed among GSC phenotypes, being different for cells and their cell-derived exosomes.