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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Matthew Selby, Dr Daniel Williamson, Professor Steven CliffordORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2017 Niklison-Chirou et al. Medulloblastoma is the most common solid primary brain tumor in children. Remarkable advancements in the understanding of the genetic and epigenetic basis of these tumors have informed their recent molecular classification. However, the genotype/phenotype correlation of the subgroups remains largely uncharacterized. In particular, the metabolic phenotype is of great interest because of its druggability, which could lead to the development of novel and more tailored therapies for a subset of medulloblastoma. p73 plays a critical role in a range of cellular metabolic processes. We show overexpression of p73 in a proportion of non-WNT medulloblastoma. In these tumors, p73 sustains cell growth and proliferation via regulation of glutamine metabolism. We validated our results in a xeno-graft model in which we observed an increase in survival time in mice on a glutamine restriction diet. Notably, glutamine starvation has a synergistic effect with cisplatin, a component of the current medulloblastoma chemotherapy. These findings raise the possibility that glutamine depletion can be used as an adjuvant treatment for p73-expressing medulloblastoma.
Author(s): Niklison-Chirou MV, Erngren I, Engskog M, Haglof J, Picard D, Remke M, McPolin PHR, Selby M, Williamson D, Clifford SC, Michod D, Hadjiandreou M, Arvidsson T, Pettersson C, Melino G, Marino S
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Genes and Development
Year: 2017
Volume: 31
Issue: 17
Pages: 1738-1753
Print publication date: 01/09/2017
Online publication date: 26/09/2017
Acceptance date: 05/09/2017
Date deposited: 07/12/2017
ISSN (print): 0890-9369
ISSN (electronic): 1549-5477
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1101/gad.302349.117
DOI: 10.1101/gad.302349.117
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