CD97 gene expression and function correlate with WT1 protein expression and glioma invasiveness

Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center’s VCU Massey Cancer Center and Harold F. Young Neurosurgical Center (Richmond, VA) and Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA) have discovered that suppression of Wilms tumor 1 protein (WT1) results in downregulation of CD97 gene expression in three glioblastoma cell lines and reduces the characteristic invasiveness exhibited by glial tumor cells. This finding is announced in the article, “Novel report of expression and function of CD97 in malignant gliomas: correlation with Wilms tumor 1 expression and glioma cell invasiveness,” by Archana Chidambaram, Ph.D., and colleagues, published online ahead of print today in the Journal of Neurosurgery. Although further studies must be performed, the authors propose that CD97 may prove to be a new target for anti-glioma therapies.