Roles of mTOR Signaling in Brain Development

mTOR is a serine/threonine kinase composed of multiple protein components. Intracellular signaling of mTOR complexes is involved in many of physiological functions including cell survival, proliferation and differentiation through the regulation of protein synthesis in multiple cell types. During brain development, mTOR-mediated signaling pathway plays a crucial role in the process of neuronal and glial differentiation and the maintenance of the stemness of neural stem cells. The abnormalities in the activity of mTOR and its downstream signaling molecules in neural stem cells result in severe defects of brain developmental processes causing a significant number of brain disorders, such as pediatric brain tumors, autism, seizure, learning disability and mental retardation. Understanding the implication of mTOR activity in neural stem cells would be able to provide an important clue in the development of future brain developmental disorder therapies.

Meduloblastoma: correlação entre ressonância magnética convencional, difusão e espectroscopia de prótons / Medulloblastoma: correlation among findings of conventional magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion-weighted imaging and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy", "_i": "en

OBJETIVO: Correlacionar os achados de ressonância magnética convencional, difusão e espectroscopia de prótons nos meduloblastomas, e compará-los aos dados da literatura. MATERIAIS E MÉTODOS: Análise retrospectivade exames de ressonância magnética pré-operatórios de nove pacientes na faixa pediátrica com diagnóstico histológico de meduloblastoma (oito desmoplásicos e um de células gigantes). Foram considerados dados demográficos e características do tumor como localização, característica morfológica, intensidade de sinal, realce, disseminação e achados na difusão e espectroscopia. RESULTADOS: Na maioria dos casos os tumores apresentaram epicentro no vermis cerebelar (77,8%), sendo predominantemente sólido (88,9%), com hipossinal nas seqüências ponderadas em T1 e iso/hipersinal nas seqüências ponderadas em T2 e FLAIR, realce heterogêneo (100%), sinais de disseminação/extensão tumoral (77,8%) e restrição à movimentação das moléculas de água (100%). A espectroscopia de prótons pela técnica STEAM (n = 6) demonstrou redução da relação Naa/Cr (83,3%) e aumento de Co/Cr (100%) e mI/Cr (66,7%), e pela técnica PRESS (n = 7) evidenciou pico de lactato (57,1%). CONCLUSÃO: O conjunto dos achados macroscópicosobtidos pela ressonância magnética, somado às características bioquímicas dos meduloblastomas, têm sido úteis na tentativa de diferenciação entre os principais tumores da fossa posterior.

OBJECTIVE: To correlate imaging findings of medulloblastomas at conventional magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion-weighted imaging and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, comparing them with data in the literature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging studies of nine pediatric patients with histologically confirmed medulloblastomas (eight desmoplastic medulloblastoma, and one giant cell medulloblastoma) were retrospectively reviewed, considering demographics as well as tumorscharacteristics such as localization, morphology, signal intensity, contrast-enhancement, dissemination, anddiffusion-weighted imaging and spectroscopy findings. RESULTS: In most of cases the tumors were centeredin the cerebellar vermis (77.8%), predominantly solid (88.9%), hypointense on T1-weighted images andintermediate/hyperintense on T2-FLAIR-weighted images, with heterogeneous enhancement (100%), tumor dissemination/extension (77.8%) and limited water molecule mobility (100%). Proton spectroscopy acquiredwith STEAM technique (n = 6) demonstrated decreased Naa/Cr ratio (83.3%) and increased Co/Cr (100%)and mI/Cr (66.7%) ratios; and with PRESS technique (n = 7) demonstrated lactate peak (57.1%). CONCLUSION: Macroscopic magnetic resonance imaging findings in association with biochemical features of medulloblastomas have been useful in the differentiation among the most frequent posterior fossa tumors. Keywords: Medulloblastoma; Infratentorial neoplasms; Pediatric brain tumors; Magnetic resonance imaging;Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Loss of Heterozygosity Analysis of PTEN and DMBT1 Loci in Pediatric Brain Tumors / 대한소아혈액종양학회지

PURPOSE: PTEN and DMBT1, candidate tumor suppressor genes on chromosome 10q, were identified based on deletions in glioblastoma and medulloblastoma cell lines. We examined the occurrences and frequencies of allelic deletions on chromosome 10q23 and 10q25 by loss of heterozygosity (LOH) analysis in 24 pediatric brain tumors to investigate the possible involvement of PTEN and DMBT1 gene deletions in the development of pediatric brain tumors. METHOD: LOH was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of PTEN locus on 10q23 using 2 microsatellite markers, D10S608 and D10S579, and of DMBT1 locus on 10q25-q26.1 using a microsatellite marker, D10S587, in 24 pediatric brain tumor (18 medulloblastomas, 3 ependymomas, 2 glioblastomas and 1 supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumor) DNAs extracted from archival tissue specimens (case 1-15, 19) or fresh frozen tissue specimens (case 16-18, 20-24). RESULTS: Allelic deletions were detected in 4 of 23 informative cases (17%) on D10S608, 6 of 24 informative cases (25%) on D10S579, and 8 of 24 informative cases (33%) on D10S587. Overall 11 of 24 cases (46%) showed LOH on chromosome 10q at PTEN or DMBT1 loci, and they were 10 medulloblastomas and 1 ependymoma pathologically. Of 18 medulloblastomas, 7 (39%) exhibited LOH at PTEN locus, 8 (44%) exhibited LOH at DMBT1 locus, and 10 (56%) exhibited LOH at one or both of loci. CONCLUSION: Our results support the notion that PTEN and DMBT1 tumor suppressor gene deletions may be involved in the pathogenesis of pediatric brain tumors. Our results also suggested that PTEN and DMBT1 tumor suppressor gene deletions may not be important in molecular mechanism of glioblastoma development in children as in adults.

Loss of Heterozygosity Studies on Chromosome 9, 22 and 17p in 12 Various Pediatric Brain Tumors / 대한소아혈액종양학회지

PURPOSE: The normal function of tumor suppressor genes is thought to be related to their ability to regulate cell proliferation and the loss of such function presumably leads to malignant transformation by releasing the transformed cells from growth regulation. One approach to identify these tumor suppressor genes is by loss of heterozygosity (LOH) studies. The rationale of these studies is that the mutation of one allelic copy of a tumor suppressor gene followed by the loss of the remaining wild type allele will result in the total loss of the function of the tumor suppressor gene. Chromosomal loci with frequent LOH in malignant tumors is likely to contain tumor suppressor genes. We want to identify deletions of putative tumor suppressor gene loci in pediatric brain tumors by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based LOH studies using microsatellite polymorphic markers of chromosome 9, 22 and 17p as most frequent cytogenetic abnormalities involve chromosome 17p, 22 and 9 in pediatric brain tumors. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Blood and tumor samples were obtained from 12 pediatric brain tumor patients who were operated at Texas Children's Cancer Center from April 1996 to January 1997. The 12 tumors consist of 5 cases of medulloblastomas, 4 cases of juvenile pilocytic astrocytomas, and 1 case each of ependymoma, atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor and desmoplastic infantile ganglioglioma. Genomic DNA extracted from blood and tumor tissues were amplified by PCR using [gamma-32P]ATP endlabeled primer pairs for the microsatellite polymorphic markers on chromosome 9, 22 and 17p which were D9S171, D9S169, D9S168, D9S165, D9S156, D9S110, D9S146, D9S971, D9S757,D9S176, D9S2105, D9S177, D9S2127, D9S1849, D9S1817, D22S303, D22S33, D22S315, D22S275, D22S299, D22S301, TOP1P2, PDGFB, D22S274, D22S304, D17S1866, D17S1810, D17S796, D17S1566 and D17S1574. The PCR products were separated by electrophoresis in a denaturing 6% polyacrylamide gel and exposed on X-ray films to analyze LOH. RESULTS: 1) There was no evidence of LOH on chromosome 9 in all 12 pediatric brain tumors. 2) Among 12 pediatric brain tumors, only one allelic loss on chromosome 22 (D22S274 : 22q13.31-22q13.33) was observed in an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor. 3) LOH for loci on chromosome 17p were detected in 6 cases (50%) of 12 various pediatric brain tumors including 4 cases of medulloblastomas and 1 case each of ependymoma and atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor. Among 5 cases of medulloblastomas, 4 cases(80%) showed LOH on at least one of 5 markers of chromosome 17p. 4) There was no allelic loss on chromosome 9, 22 and 17p in juvenile pilocytic astrocytomas. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that there may be a putative tumor suppressor gene located on chromosome 22q13.3 associated with tumorigenesis of atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor, and other putative tumor suppressor genes located on chromosome 17p13.1-17p13.3 associated with tumorigenesis of medulloblastoma, ependymoma and atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor. But we need to collect more pediatric brain tumor samples to be studied and allelotype the suggested LOH region in detail.