Science Advances: An efficient detection strategy for common brain tumors in children - ctDNA fluid biopsies.

Cystoblastoma (MB) is the most common childhood brain tumor and is considered an embryonic-source tumor of the small brain.
the origin of MB cells is not clear, there is speculation that MB tumor cells originated from early neural stem cells or ancestral cells.
is known to have few mutations in the MB gene compared to adult cancers and other pediatric cancers.
recent studies have shown that different MB subsypes have different metagenetic characteristics and dynamic changes in DNA methylation occur during tumor progression and clinical treatment.
DNA low methylation is closely related to increased gene expression in MB, suggesting that DNA dna dna dna dmethylation may play a key role in the pathogenesis of MB.
the current MB diagnosis is based on clinical symptoms, MRI scans and tumor biopsies.
and then monitor the physical changes of the tumor through routine MRI.
clinicians also perform repeated lumbar punctures, commonly known as spinal punctures, to collect cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to detect the presence of tumor cells.
if there are no tumor cells in the cerebrospinal fluid, clinicians may consider their treatment effective and continue to treat it," he said.
However, cerebrospinal fluid test results are often inconsistent with the patient's end results," said Dr. Jali, an assistant professor of research at the Center for Apparent Genetics and Disease Prevention (CEDP) at the Institute of Biological Sciences and Technology at Texas Agricultural University and the study's lead author.
" in other words, clinicians want to be able to monitor a patient's tumor status so that they can intervene as early as possible when there is evidence that the tumor has returned or started malignant growth again.
liquid biopsy is a method of detecting cancer DNA or other disease biomarkers in body fluids such as blood, and is increasingly used to monitor adult cancers such as rectal and breast cancer.
technology is a relatively non-invasive way to assess cancer progression, treatment response and recurrence.
current technology to detect cancer-related genetic mutations in plasma.
, however, is more challenging for children with brain cancer, which usually has very few mutations.
, according to the researchers, can be described as "genetically boring," meaning that their DNA does not have a large number of mutations.
contrast, childhood brain tumors often have presumed genetic changes.
other words, in cancer cells, DNA itself does not change as a result of mutations, and the opening or closing of certain key genes is determined by the changes in the metagenetics that regulate their activity.
because of the presence of pre-existing genetic abnormalities in childhood brain cancer, the team concluded that the overt genetic markers in biofuels such as cerebrospinal fluids may be an effective way to detect and monitor such cancers.
problem with using liquid biopsies to treat childhood brain cancer is that because the blood-brain barrier prevents brain tumor DNA from being released into the bloodstream, it is almost impossible to detect brain tumor DNA in the plasma.
, cerebrospinal fluid interacts with brain tumor cells in the central nervous system and can be used for liquid biopsies.
, however, the cerebrospinal fluid contains very small amounts of DNA, making it difficult to study.
Li and Yun Nancy Huang and Dr. Deqiang Sun developed a new approach to this problem and successfully performed genome-wide DNA methylation analysis from a very small amount of DNA in the cerebrospinal fluid.
the cerebrospinal fluid they used came from a bio bank that doctors at Texas Children's Hospital had built for 20 years.
"Tumor cells in cerebrospinal fluid degrade during circulation, but DNA survives much longer than cells, so cell free tumor DNA (ctDNA) can be found in biolibrary samples," said Huang, co-author of the study.
researchers have developed an experimental and computational method to analyze this DNA.
their results show that the omenogenetic marker, DNA methylation, can be detected in the ctDNA of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) as a potential biomarker to report the status of MB tumors and predict prognostics.
this is basically a new way to detect DNA methylation in circulating DNA and can be used for biomarker detection and quantification of childhood cancer.
the cytosine modification of the cerebrospinal fluid ctDNA is ultimately consistent with the high degree of in-place MB tumor detection, this study will lead to the development of a biomarker kit that clinicians will be able to use to monitor patients with childhood brain tumors.
still many steps to be taken to achieve this goal, but these findings have generated great interest among doctors and showed prospects for clinical use.
: Jia Li, et, al. Reliable tumor detection by whole-genome methylation sequencing of cell-free DNA in cerebrospinal fluid of pediatric medulloblastoma. Science Advances, 2020; 6 (42): eabb5427 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abb5427MedSci Original Source: MedSci Original Copyright Notice: All noted on this website "Source: May The text, images and audio and video materials of SMM or Source: MedSci Originals are owned by Mace Medical and may not be reproduced by any media, website or individual without authorization, and shall be reproduced with the words "Source: Metz Medicine".
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