We firstly isolated CSCs from Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) MB derived from Ptch1 heterozygous mice and compared their expression level of EMT-related transcripts and microRNAs with cerebellar NSCs.
We also briefly review two important advances in this area: the treatment of medulloblastomas in patients with mutations in the PTCH1 gene, and the discovery of deregulated mammalian target of rapamycin as a major oncogenic driver molecule in patients with TSC mutations and subependymal giant cell astrocytoma.
The human Patched (PTCH) gene is a classical tumour suppressor gene for basal cell carcinomas and medulloblastomas, the loss of which causes increased signalling through the Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) pathway.
Learning that Ptc1 is a medulloblastoma tumor suppressor led directly to the identification of the Ptc1 ligand, Sonic hedgehog, as a powerful mitogen for cerebellar granule cell precursors.
Constitutive activation of hedgehog signaling, often caused by PTCH1 inactivation and leading to inappropriate activation of GLI target genes, is crucial for the development of several human tumors including basal cell carcinoma of the skin and medulloblastoma.
Mutations of the human Patched gene ( PTCH ) have been identified in individuals with the nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome (NBCCS) as well as in sporadic basal cell carcinomas and medulloblastomas.
In immunohistochemistry assays, anti-GAB1 antibody expression is positive in tumors showing SHH pathway activation or PTCH mutation, while positive immunoexpression for YAP1 antibody can be only found in WNT-activated and SHH-activated MDB.
Novel PTCH1 mutations in Japanese Nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome patients: two familial and three sporadic cases including the first Japanese patient with medulloblastoma.
Each SUFU-positive family included a single case of medulloblastoma, whereas only two (1.7%) of 115 individuals with Gorlin syndrome and a PTCH1 mutation developed medulloblastoma.
Eight genetic variants annotating three genes in the sonic hedgehog signaling pathway; CCND2, PTCH1, and GLI2, were found to be associated with the risk of medulloblastoma (P(combined) < 0.05).
This is supported by the observation that human medulloblastomas with PTCH1 mutations displayed more similarities to PTCH1 wild-type tumors of the same age group than to PTCH1-mutated tumors of the other age group.
Genetic analyses revealed recurrent somatic inactivations of the tumor suppressor gene Ptch1 and a recapitulation of the sonic hedgehog subgroup of human medulloblastomas.
In mice, Ptc1 haploinsufficiency and disruption of DNA repair (DNA ligase IV inactivation) or cell cycle regulation (Kip1, Ink4d, or Ink4c inactivation), in conjunction with p53 dysfunction, predispose to medulloblastoma.
Primary tumor cells derived from two models of murine medulloblastoma (Ptch1(+/-);Ink4c(-/-) and p53(FL/FL);Nestin-Cre(+); Ink4c(-/-)) that retain and lack p53 function, respectively, displayed a dependence on functional p53 to engage 17-DMAG-induced apoptosis.
Orthotopic transplantation of NES cells generated from Gorlin syndrome patients, who are predisposed to medulloblastoma due to germline-mutated PTCH1, also generated medulloblastoma.
Here we have used Ptc1(+/-); p53(-/-) mice which develop medulloblastoma to test the ability of cyclopamine to inhibit endogenous tumor growth in vivo after tumor initiation through intraperitoneal delivery, which avoids the brain damage associated with direct injection.