MicroNRA Regulation of Cancer Stem Cells in Nervous System Tumors

Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

One of the reasons that curing cancer is so difficult is that tumors are made up of many different types of cells, each with its own behavior and drug susceptibility. Researchers are beginning to appreciate that a small population of tumor cells, called cancer stem cells, are more aggressive and able to survive chemotherapy. Our goal is to understand how cancer stem cells acquire the properties that enable them to persist and metastasize, and to discover new ways to treat cancer by targeting them. In addition to improving treatment efficacy, therapies that target specific molecular pathways are better tolerated by patients. We previously showed that neural progenitors – stem cells that give rise to the nervous system during development – depend on the function of a gene, called microRNA-302 (miR-302); without miR-302, the nervous system does not form properly resulting in death. Our preliminary work in a brain cancer model of glioma shows that miR-302, ordinarily non-active after birth, is turned on in glioma, the most common type of brain cancer. Because miR-302 is active in stem cells, we hypothesize that miR-302 marks the cancer stem cell population in glioma and other related cancers. In this project, we will use multiple cancer models and experimental techniques to test the function of miR-302 in cancer stem cells, specifically on the aggressiveness of brain-related cancers, and will dissect the molecular pathways that control cellular behavior.