Activation of embryonic/germ cell-like axis links poor outcomes of gliomas.

Background: It is unclear which core events drive the malignant progression of gliomas. Earlier studies have revealed that the embryonic stem (ES) cell/early PGC state is associated with tumourigenicity. This study was designed to investigate the role of ES/PGC state in poor outcomes of gliomas.

Suppressing Dazl modulates tumorigenicity and stemness in human glioblastoma cells.

Background: Glioblastoma is devastating cancer with a high frequency of occurrence and poor survival rate and it is urgent to discover novel glioblastoma-specific antigens for the therapy. Cancer-germline genes are known to be related to the formation and progression of several cancer types by promoting tumor transformation. Dazl is one such germline gene and is up-regulated in a few germ cell cancers.

Nanos3, a cancer-germline gene, promotes cell proliferation, migration, chemoresistance, and invasion of human glioblastoma.

Background: Radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery have made crucial strides in glioblastoma treatment, yet they often fail; thus, new treatment and new detection methods are needed. Aberrant expression of Nanos3 has been functionally associated with various cancers. Here, we sought to identify the clinical significance and potential mechanisms of Nanos3 in human glioblastoma.

The first calcified acoustic neurinoma identified in China: a case report and literature review.

Here we reported the first case of left cerebellopontine angle acoustic neurinoma with calcification in our department. The patient was 65 year-old, suffering from progressive loss of hearing in the left ear for about 30 years and headache with unsteady gait for approximately 6 months. Head CT & MRI scan identified an intracranial lesion located on left cerebellopontine angle.

Genetic variations in the homologous recombination repair pathway genes modify risk of glioma.

Accumulative epidemiological evidence suggests that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes involved in homologous recombination (HR) DNA repair pathway play an important role in glioma susceptibility. However, the effects of such SNPs on glioma risk remain unclear. We used a used a candidate pathway-based approach to elucidate the relationship between glioma risk and 12 putative functional SNPs in genes involved in the HR pathway.

Blood-based DNA methylation of DNA repair genes in the non-homologous end-joining (NEHJ) pathway in patient with glioma.

Unlabelled: To investigate the blood-based DNA methylation of repair genes including LIG4, XRCC4, XRCC5, XRCC6 and XRCC7 that involved in non-homologous end-joining (NEHJ) DNA repair pathway in patients with glioma. Blood samples were obtained from 114 glioma patients, 96 normal controls, and 81 glioma patients after radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Blood-based DNA methylation of the five NHEJ repair genes was assayed by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP).

Enhanced detection and comprehensive in situ phenotypic characterization of circulating and disseminated heteroploid epithelial and glioma tumor cells.

Conventional strategy of anti-EpCAM capture and immunostaining of cytokeratins (CKs) to detect circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is limited by highly heterogeneous and dynamic expression or absence of EpCAM and/or CKs in CTCs. In this study, a novel integrated cellular and molecular approach of subtraction enrichment (SE) and immunostaining-FISH (iFISH) was successfully developed. Both large or small size CTCs and circulating tumor microemboli (CTM) in various biofluid samples including cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of cancer patients and patient-derived-xenograft (PDX) mouse models were efficiently enriched and comprehensively identified and characterized by SE-iFISH.

Application of CUSA Excel ultrasonic aspiration system in resection of skull base meningiomas.

Background: Here, we introduced our short experience on the application of a new CUSA Excel ultrasonic aspiration system, which was provided by Integra Lifesciences corporation, in skull base meningiomas resection.

Methods: Ten patients with anterior, middle skull base and sphenoid ridge meningioma were operated using the CUSA Excel ultrasonic aspiration system at the Neurosurgery Department of Shanghai Huashan Hospital from August 2014 to October 2014. There were six male and four female patients, aged from 38 to 61 years old (the mean age was 48.

Proteomic analysis of cerebrospinal fluid: toward the identification of biomarkers for gliomas.

Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors in adults and, despite advances in the understandings of glioma pathogenesis in the genetic era, they are still ineradicable, justifying the need to develop more reliable diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for this malignancy. Because changes in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are suggested to be capable of sensitively reflecting pathological processes, e.g.

Cationic core-shell nanoparticles with carmustine contained within O⁶-benzylguanine shell for glioma therapy.

The application of carmustine (BCNU) for glioma treatment is limited due to its poor selectivity for tumor and tumor resistance caused by O⁶-methylguanine-DNA-methyl transferase (MGMT). To improve the efficacy of BCNU, we constructed chitosan surface-modified poly (lactide-co-glycolides) nanoparticles (PLGA/CS NPs) for targeting glioma, loading BCNU along with O⁶-benzylguanine (BG), which could directly deplete MGMT. With core-shell structure, PLGA/CS NPs in the diameter around 177 nm showed positive zeta potential.

Serum GFAP autoantibody as an ELISA-detectable glioma marker.

Glioma is the most common primary brain tumor, yet the high cost of diagnostic imaging has made early detection of asymptomatic glioma a formidable challenge. Thus, the development of a convenient, sensitive, and cost-effective diagnostic strategy, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on glioma-specific and World Health Organization (WHO) grade-specific autoantibody serum markers, is necessary. To this end, a comparative proteomic analysis based on two-dimensional western blotting was carried out with the sera of glioma patients and normal controls.

Towards MIB-1 and p53 detection in glioma magnetic resonance image: a novel computational image analysis method.

Glioma is the primary tumor in the central nervous system, and poses one of the greatest challenges in clinical treatment. MIB-1 and p53 are the most useful biomarkers for gliomas and could help neurosurgeons establish a therapeutic schedule. However, these biomarkers are commonly detected with the help of immunohistochemistry (IHC), which wastes time and energy and is often influenced by subjective factors.

EGFR-mediated G1/S transition contributes to the multidrug resistance in breast cancer cells.

Despite the improvement of strategies against cancer therapy, the multidrug resistance (MDR)is the critical problem for successful cancer therapy. Recurrent cancers after initial treatment with chemotherapy are generally refractory to second treatments with these anticancer therapies. Therefore, it is necessary to elucidate the therapy-resistant mechanism for development of effective therapeutic modalities against tumors.

TMZ-induced PrPc/par-4 interaction promotes the survival of human glioma cells.

Malignant gliomas recur even after extensive surgery and chemo-radiotherapy. Although a relatively novel chemotherapeutic agent, temozolomide (TMZ), has demonstrated promising activity against gliomas, the effects last only a few months and drug resistance develops thereafter in many cases. It has been acknowledged that glioma cells respond to TMZ treatment by undergoing G2/M arrest, but not apoptosis.

CTLA4 A49G polymorphism shows significant association with glioma risk in a Chinese population.

Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA4) A49G is a polymorphism that is extensively studied in various cancers. To investigate whether it is associated with the occurrence of glioma in Chinese patients, we performed a case-control research study with 670 patients and 680 controls. In this group, we found that the genotype at this locus is significantly associated with glioma risk (GG vs.

Factors affecting prognosis of patients with intracranial anaplastic oligodendrogliomas: a single institutional review of 70 patients.

Anaplastic oligodendroglioma (AO) is an uncommon intracranial tumor and prognosis is poor. In this study, we assessed the factors affecting the prognosis of AO patients. Seventy AO patients were recruited from 2001 to 2006 in Shanghai Huashan Hospital of Fudan University; all were treated surgically.

XRCC3 haplotypes and risk of gliomas in a Chinese population: a hospital-based case-control study.

In mammalian cells, X-ray repair cross-complementing group3 (XRCC3) plays an important role in the DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) repair by homologous recombination. Genetic polymorphisms in the XRCC3 gene may potentially affect the repair of DSBs and thus confer susceptibility to gliomas. In this study, we used a haplotype-based approach to investigate whether 4 tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms of the XRCC3 gene are associated with risk of gliomas in 771 glioma patients and 752 cancer-free controls.

Polymorphisms of LIG4 and XRCC4 involved in the NHEJ pathway interact to modify risk of glioma.

Although the role of environmental risk factors in the etiology of gliomas remains to be elucidated, accumulative epidemiological evidence suggests that genetic factors, such as variants in genes involved in DNA repair, may also play an important role. LIG4 and XRCC4 are known to form a complex and are functionally linked in the repair of double-stranded DNA breaks. To determine whether LIG4 and XRCC4 polymorphisms are associated with susceptibility to glioma and whether there are interactions between LIG4 and XRCC4, we conducted a case-control study of 771 glioma patients and 752 cancer-free controls, assessed the associations between glioma risk and 20 tagging SNPs, and evaluated their potential gene-gene interactions using the multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR), interaction dendrogram, and entropy analysis.

Discovery of serum biomarkers in astrocytoma by SELDI-TOF MS and proteinchip technology.

Objective: To discover serum biomarkers in astrocytoma patients for early detection of glioma and evaluation of prognosis.

Methods: A total of 140 serum samples were analyzed using the weak cation-exchange (WCX) chips. Among those, 73 were sera from astrocytoma patients, 56 from normal controls, and 11 from other brain tumors.

Tagging SNPs in non-homologous end-joining pathway genes and risk of glioma.

Ionizing radiation is known to cause DNA damage, including single-strand and double-strand DNA breaks (DSBs), and the unrepair of DNA damage, particularly DSBs, may cause chromosome aberrations. Although the etiology of gliomas remains unclear, exposure to ionizing radiation has been identified as the only established risk factor. We hypothesized that polymorphisms of candidate genes involved in the DSBs repair pathway may contribute to susceptibility to glioma.