Discrimination of the chemotherapy resistance status of human leukemia and glioblastoma cell lines by MALDI-TOF-MS profiling

Chemotherapy mistreatment is partially due to a lack of rapid and reliable tools to discriminate between sensitive and resistant phenotypes. In many cases, the resistance mechanism is not fully understood, contributing to the diagnostic tools' absence. This work aims to determine the capacity of MALDI-TOF-MS profiling to discriminate between chemotherapy-resistant and sensitive phenotypes in leukemia and glioblastoma cells. A multivariate analysis of two therapy-resistant leukemia cell lines (Ki562 and Kv562) and two TMZ-resistant glioblastoma cell lines (U251-R and LN229-R) and their sensitive counterparts was performed. In this work, we first show MALDI-TOF-MS patterns analysis ability to differentiate these cancer cell lines by their chemotherapy-resistant status. We present a rapid and inexpensive tool that would guide and complement the therapeutic decision.

The importance of RHAMM in the normal brain and gliomas: physiological and pathological roles

Although the literature about the functions of hyaluronan and the CD44 receptor in the brain and brain tumours is extensive, the role of the receptor for hyaluronan-mediated motility (RHAMM) in neural stem cells and gliomas remain poorly explored. RHAMM is considered a multifunctional receptor which performs various biological functions in several normal tissues and plays a significant role in cancer development and progression. RHAMM was first identified for its ability to bind to hyaluronate, the extracellular matrix component associated with cell motility control. Nevertheless, additional functions of this protein imply the interaction with different partners or cell structures to regulate other biological processes, such as mitotic-spindle assembly, gene expression regulation, cell-cycle control and proliferation. In this review, we summarise the role of RHAMM in normal brain development and the adult brain, focusing on the neural stem and progenitor cells, and discuss the current knowledge on RHAMM involvement in glioblastoma progression, the most aggressive glioma of the central nervous system. Understanding the implications of RHAMM in the brain could be useful to design new therapeutic approaches to improve the prognosis and quality of life of glioblastoma patients.