Lead investigator: Dr Farhana Haque, University of Nottingham
Funded by The Little Princess Trust and administered by CCLG
Funded December 2017
Award: £99,837.30
Despite advances in treating and curing childhood cancer, paediatric high-grade glioma (pHGG) and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) (two types of childhood brain tumours) have a very poor prognosis, with less than 25% survival for both types combined.
These cancers are caused by changes in the DNA, in genes which make essential proteins called “histones”. Histone proteins help to regulate which other genes in a cell are going to be active or inactive. The aim of this study is to develop better diagnosis and novel therapeutic approaches to treat these histone-mutant children’s brain tumours.
Over the past few years, the team has been investigating how a specific histone mutation, so-called G34R, leads to the formation of tumours. The team has generated and validated new tools (in the form of specific “antibodies”), which in turn have allowed identification of the histone mutant proteins that occur in children’s brain tumours. These tools are now ready to be used in the clinical setting for rapid identification of histone mutated brain tumours.
In order to develop an effective therapeutic target for these histone-mutated children’s brain tumours, we need to understand their biology. To this end, the team has used the antibodies for different biochemical studies.
By analysing data from these studies, they have now identified important differences in the histone mutated brain tumours. We now need to test to see whether these findings are reliable through further experiments. Completion of these studies will enable the team to identify potential novel therapeutic targets, which will allow precision-treatment based on patient’s molecular diagnosis.