Investigating the role of selective pathway antagonists in highly self-renewing medulloblastoma subpopulations
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Date
2014-08-07
Authors
McClelland, Robyn
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Abstract
Medulloblastoma is the most common primary pediatric malignant brain tumour. It's highly infiltrative nature and ability to evade current therapies are associated with a high rate of metastasis and poor prognosis. Within medulloblastoma, there exist many cellular phenotypes, including some with a primitive phenotype that allows them to initiate or propogate tumours (brain tumour iniating or propagating cells). Recent work in this lab has identified CD271 as a marker for a more primitive phenotype within medulloblastoma. This project sought to examine two well-defined pathway antagonists effect on self-renewal abilities. Gamma-secretase inhibitors block the proteolytic processing of the CD271 receptor, while cyclopamine analogues inhibit the Shh pathway. These two pathway antagonists were used to examine effects on cells expressing, or overexpressing CD271, compared with cells not expressing CD271.
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Keywords
selective pathway antagonists, medulloblastoma subpopulations