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Special Issue: Trends in Glioblastoma

SPECIAL ISSUE

Trends in Glioblastoma

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive malignant primary brain tumor. Researching new therapeutic options and advancing our understanding of the disease is critical to increase survival.

This Special issue will highlight recent developments in our understanding of Glioblastoma and possible paths towards new therapies.

Amy Haseley Thorne 1, Webster K Cavenee 1, Frank B. Furnari 1
1 Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of California San Diego

Abstract

Alternative splicing enables the generation of different proteins from a single gene, greatly increasing the use of genetic information. The resultant protein isoforms often have different biological properties effecting the phenotype of the cell in which it is expressed. Dysregulation of alternative splicing is a common occurrence in cancer and may lead to the formation of truncated or degraded proteins through the introduction of immature stop codons or nonsense mediated decay. Increasing evidence indicates that cancer-associated splicing variants play an important role in tumor initiation and progression. In this review, we summarize the evidence supporting the relevance of alternative splicing in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Specifically, we focus on the role of alternative splicing in GBM pathogenesis with an emphasis on the effect of aberrant alternative splicing of FGFR, GLI-1, and EGFR. The significance of exploiting alternatively spliced isoforms as potential biomarkers which may contribute to the development of diagnostic and prognostic methods, in addition to serving as molecular targets in GBM, will be discussed.