Ricerc@Sapienza

Gliomas are tumors of glial origin and are the most frequent malignancies of the brain being associated with a dismal prognosis and life quality. Glioblastoma (GBM, WHO grade IV) is the most aggressive form of glioma, and despite the best of the cares, is still an untreatable tumor with a median survival of about 12-15 months. GBM is characterized by extensive hypoxic areas that strongly correlate with tumor malignancy. Hypoxia promotes stemness, migration, invasion, angiogenesis, radio- and chemoresistance, all responsible of the failure of current therapies. Thus, there is still an increasing need to find novel molecular targets and to understand how to limit GBM relapse.
Polysialic acid (PSA) is a carbohydrate composed of a linear polymer of ¿2,8-linked sialic acid. In neural cells, PSA is mainly attached to the Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule (NCAM). PSA is considered an oncodevelopmental antigen being highly expressed during development, downregulated in the adult, and re-expressed in tumoral cells. High levels of PSA-NCAM are associated with high-grade tumors with a low degree of differentiation and with the ability to spread aggressively.
In light of that, the aim of this study is to understand the effect of PSA inhibition in GBM cells. Targeting PSA could well be a promising strategy to manage a devastating tumor as GBM.