Glioblastoma (GBM) is a cancer that presumably originates from astrocytes, and is the most common brain cancer and a cancer with the worst prognosis of all – on average 14-16 months. Many studies seek to find ways to improve GBM therapy, which was also the motivation for our research on the role and mechanism of action of chemokine CCL5 and its cognate receptor CCR5 in GBM.
Chemokines are a functionally distinct family of cytokines that induce chemotaxis and are responsible for physiological cell migration and immune cell trafficking, as well as tumour cell migration in cancer. CCL5 and CCR5 are proven to have pro-tumour roles in many cancers, including GBM, but the exact role and cell cross-talk mechanism have not yet been determined. Using immunofluorescence on GBM tissue slides, we studied the colocalization of proteins that are markers of various cel types within the tumour and CCL5 and CCR5; we observed that also GBM stem cells (GSC) express CCR5, which indicates specific paracrine and autocrine signalisation mechanisms.
Our work was also focused on the studying of the invasivness of GBM cell in coculture with MSC cells and we have proven a significant increase in tumour cell invasiveness. The invasiveness was a result of the CCL5/CCR5 signalisation between GBM cells and mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), as the adding of the CCR5 receptor antagonist Maraviroc caused it to be notably inhibited. Maraviroc is already an approved drug used in the therapy of HIV patients. Along the secreted form of CCL5, using microscopic analysis we observed CCL5 also in the nucleus. Our bioinformatic analysis of the potential role of CCL5 in the nucleus has shown a basis for the possible DNA-binding ability of CCL5.
The role of our findings is possibly a better GBM therapy; the effectiveness of current methods (surgery, radiation, chemo- and immunotherapy) could be effectively improved with repositioning MRV for an additional GBM therapy, which inhibits the CCL5/CCR5 axis and consequently inhibits the stroma-induced GBM cell invasion.
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