Abstract 325: TDP-43 promotes glioblalstoma cell survival under nutrient deprivation condition via activating autophagy

Abstract

Abstract Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive malignant brain tumor in adults. TDP-43 (TARDBP), a DNA and RNA binding protein, is well known to play a key role in RNA processing, including involving in the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Recent reports suggested that TDP-43 may participate to the regulation of metabolic glycolysis in cancer. Overcoming metabolic stress is critical for cancer cell survival and growth in nutrient deprivation condition. Herein we found TDP-43 overexpression promotes glioblastoma cell survival and suppressed the activated-form levels of caspase 3 protein under nutrient deprivation. Overexpression of TDP-43 increased the tumorigenicity as determined by anchorage-independent growth assay and xenografts in immunocompromised mice model. Under nutrient deprivation, we also found that TDP-43-overexpression induced autophagy. By this study, we presume TDP-43 enhanced GBM cells tumorigincity, activated autophagy and inhibited cell death under nutrient deprivation condition. TDP-43 is potentially the new aspects for understanding the tumorigenicity and metablolic regulation for malignant brain tumors and GBM. Citation Format: Yun-Ching Chang, Tzu-Wei Lin. TDP-43 promotes glioblalstoma cell survival under nutrient deprivation condition via activating autophagy. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 325. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-325