Non-invasive assessment of telomere maintenance mechanisms in brain tumors.

ABSTRACT: Telomere maintenance is a universal hallmark of cancer. Most tumors including low-grade oligodendrogliomas use telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) expression for telomere maintenance while astrocytomas use the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) pathway. Although TERT and ALT are hallmarks of tumor proliferation and attractive therapeutic targets, translational methods of imaging TERT and ALT are lacking. Here we show that TERT and ALT are associated with unique ¹H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS)-detectable metabolic signatures in genetically-engineered and patient-derived glioma models and patient biopsies. Importantly, we have leveraged this information to mechanistically validate hyperpolarized [1-¹³C]-alanine flux to pyruvate as an imaging biomark

SUBMITTER: Viswanath P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7782549 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature