A Combined Effect of G-Quadruplex and Neuro-Inducers as an Alternative Approach to Human Glioblastoma Therapy

GQIcombi application to subdue glioma via differentiation therapy

Current therapy protocols fail to cure high-grade gliomas and prevent recurrence. Therefore, novel approaches need to be developed. A re-programing of glioma cell fate is an alternative attractive way to stop tumor growth. The two-step protocol applies the antiproliferative GQ bi-(AID-1-T) and small molecule inducers with BDNF to trigger neural differentiation into terminally differentiated cells, and it is very effective on GB cell cultures. This original approach is a successful example of the "differentiation therapy". To demonstrate a versatility of this approach, in this publication we have extended a palette of cell cultures to gliomas of II, III and IV Grades, and proved an applicability of that version of differential therapy for a variety of tumor cells. We have justified a sequential mode of adding of GQIcombi components to the glioma cells. We have shown a significant retardation of tumor growth after a direct injection of GQIcombi into the tumor in rat brain, model 101/8. Thus, the proposed strategy of influencing on cancer cell growth is applicable to be further translated for therapy use.

[Prognostic model for assessing the human glioma cell malignancy grade based on MDM2, MELK, SOX2, CDK4, DR5 and OCT4 gene expression]

Glioma cell cultures are used in basic researches of tumor processes, personalized medicine for selecting treatment regimens depending on individual characteristics of patients and pharmacology for assessing the effectiveness of chemotherapy. Suppression of glioma culture growth without reduction of malignancy grade is common. Drug cancellation may be followed by substitution of precursor cells by more malignant clones. Therefore, analysis of culture cell malignancy grade is important. In the future, intraoperative analysis of glioma cell malignancy grade can be used to select individual therapy.

OBJECTIVE

We analyzed the relationship between expression of marker genes TUBB3, CD133, CDK4, CDK6, CIRBP, DR4, DR5, EGFR, FGFR, FSHR, GDNF, GFAP, L1CAM, LEF1, MAP2, MDM2, MELK, NANOG, NOTCH2, OCT4, OLIG2, PDGFRA, PDGFA, PDGFB and SOX2 and glioma cell malignancy grade, as well as created appropriate prognostic model.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We analyzed expression of 25 marker genes in 22 samples of human glioma cultures using quantitative real-time PCR. Statistical analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0 software. We used the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests to assess distribution normality. Nonparametric Jonckheere-Terpstra and Spearman tests were applied.

RESULTS

We obtained a prognostic model for assessing the grade III and IV glioma cell malignancy based on expression of marker genes MDM2, MELK, SOX2, CDK4, DR5 and OCT4. Predictive accuracy was 83% (Akaike information criterion -55.125).

[Protein CD133 as a tumor stem cell marker]

The CD133 protein is a large transmembrane glycoprotein. Despite multiple studies, the role of CD133 protein in cells is still poorly understood. Nevertheless, there is an association of CD133 protein with neoplastic transformation. This review summarizes data on CD133 protein, its structure, regulation of expression, molecular interactions and representation in cells that have undergone malignant transformation. Available data suggest that CD133 may have a great potential for predicting survival in various solid tumors. This protein can also be a marker of glioma.