TY - JOUR
T1 - Reprogramming the fate of human glioma cells to impede brain tumor development
AU - Su, Z.
AU - Zang, T.
AU - Liu, M. L.
AU - Wang, L. L.
AU - Niu, W.
AU - Zhang, C. L.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements. We thank members of the Zhang laboratory for discussions and reagents. CLZ is a W W Caruth, Jr Scholar in Biomedical Research. This work was supported by the Welch Foundation Award (I-1724), the Ellison Medical Foundation Award (AG-NS-0753-11), and NIH Grants (R01NS070981 and R01NS088095; to CLZ).
PY - 2014/1/1
Y1 - 2014/1/1
N2 - Malignant gliomas, the most common solid tumors in the central nervous system, are essentially incurable due to their rapid growth and very invasive nature. One potential approach to eradicating glioma cells is to force these cells to undergo terminal differentiation and, in the process, to irreversible postmitotic arrest. Here, we show that neurogenin 2 (NGN2, also known as NEUROG2) synergizes with sex-determining region Y-box 11 (SOX11) to very efficiently convert human glioma cells to terminally differentiated neuron-like cells in both cell culture and adult mouse brains. These cells exhibit neuronal morphology, marker expression, and electrophysiological properties. The conversion process is accompanied by cell cycle exit, which dramatically inhibits glioma cell proliferation and tumor development after orthotopic transplantation. Most importantly, intracranial injection of NGN2- and SOX11-expressing virus into the tumor mass also curtails glioma growth and significantly improves survival of tumor-bearing mice. Taken together, this study shows a simple and highly efficient strategy for reprogramming malignant glioma cells into postmitotic cells, which might be a promising therapeutic approach for brain tumors.
AB - Malignant gliomas, the most common solid tumors in the central nervous system, are essentially incurable due to their rapid growth and very invasive nature. One potential approach to eradicating glioma cells is to force these cells to undergo terminal differentiation and, in the process, to irreversible postmitotic arrest. Here, we show that neurogenin 2 (NGN2, also known as NEUROG2) synergizes with sex-determining region Y-box 11 (SOX11) to very efficiently convert human glioma cells to terminally differentiated neuron-like cells in both cell culture and adult mouse brains. These cells exhibit neuronal morphology, marker expression, and electrophysiological properties. The conversion process is accompanied by cell cycle exit, which dramatically inhibits glioma cell proliferation and tumor development after orthotopic transplantation. Most importantly, intracranial injection of NGN2- and SOX11-expressing virus into the tumor mass also curtails glioma growth and significantly improves survival of tumor-bearing mice. Taken together, this study shows a simple and highly efficient strategy for reprogramming malignant glioma cells into postmitotic cells, which might be a promising therapeutic approach for brain tumors.
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U2 - 10.1038/cddis.2014.425
DO - 10.1038/cddis.2014.425
M3 - Article
C2 - 25321470
AN - SCOPUS:84928034248
SN - 2041-4889
VL - 5
JO - Cell Death and Disease
JF - Cell Death and Disease
IS - 10
M1 - e1463
ER -