Recurrent Glioblastomas Reveal Molecular Subtypes Associated with Mechanistic Implications of Drug-Resistance

PLoS One. 2015 Oct 14;10(10):e0140528. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140528. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Previously, transcriptomic profiling studies have shown distinct molecular subtypes of glioblastomas. It has also been suggested that the recurrence of glioblastomas could be achieved by transcriptomic reprograming of tumors, however, their characteristics are not yet fully understood. Here, to gain the mechanistic insights on the molecular phenotypes of recurrent glioblastomas, gene expression profiling was performed on the 43 cases of glioblastomas including 15 paired primary and recurrent cases. Unsupervised clustering analyses revealed two subtypes of G1 and G2, which were characterized by proliferation and neuron-like gene expression traits, respectively. While the primary tumors were classified as G1 subtype, the recurrent glioblastomas showed two distinct expression types. Compared to paired primary tumors, the recurrent tumors in G1 subtype did not show expression alteration. By contrast, the recurrent tumors in G2 subtype showed expression changes from proliferation type to neuron-like one. We also observed the expression of stemness-related genes in G1 recurrent tumors and the altered expression of DNA-repair genes (i.e., AURK, HOX, MGMT, and MSH6) in the G2 recurrent tumors, which might be responsible for the acquisition of drug resistance mechanism during tumor recurrence in a subtype-specific manner. We suggest that recurrent glioblastomas may choose two different strategies for transcriptomic reprograming to escape the chemotherapeutic treatment during tumor recurrence. Our results might be helpful to determine personalized therapeutic strategy against heterogeneous glioma recurrence.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Antineoplastic Agents / therapeutic use
  • Brain Neoplasms / drug therapy
  • Brain Neoplasms / genetics*
  • Brain Neoplasms / mortality
  • Brain Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Cell Self Renewal / genetics
  • Cluster Analysis
  • DNA Modification Methylases / genetics
  • DNA Repair Enzymes / genetics
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / genetics
  • Drug Resistance, Neoplasm / genetics*
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic
  • Glioblastoma / drug therapy
  • Glioblastoma / genetics*
  • Glioblastoma / mortality
  • Glioblastoma / pathology*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasm Recurrence, Local
  • Neoplastic Stem Cells / metabolism
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Tumor Burden
  • Tumor Suppressor Proteins / genetics

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • DNA-Binding Proteins
  • G-T mismatch-binding protein
  • Tumor Suppressor Proteins
  • DNA Modification Methylases
  • MGMT protein, human
  • DNA Repair Enzymes

Grants and funding

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and future Planning (NRF-2014R1A2A2A01005274 and NRF-2012R1A5A2048183), and Korea Healthcare technology R&D Project, Ministry of Health & Welfare (HI13C2162).