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Volume 2
June 11-13, 2018 | London, UK
Neurology and Neuroscience
6
th
International Conference on
Cancer stem cell resistance against temozolomide in glioblastoma multiforma treatment
Meryem Alagoz
Biruni University, Turkey
G
lioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and
aggressive form of malignant brain tumour. GBM patient
lifespan is extend upto 24 months. Treatment of this disease
become the greatest challenge due to complexity of tumour
and numerous mechanisms involving drug resistance. Magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrates that remaining few
cancer cells were not affected by the aggressive treatment
which implicates heterogenousity of cancer cell population in
GBM. During routine patient follow-up, MRI showed survival
of cancer cells after treatments. TMZ- resistant cells have
different characteristics from cancer cells in the heterogeneous
cell population. Further analysis indicates some physiological
and biological proporties of stem cells such as markers and
symmetrical/asymmetricalproliferativecapacity.Temozolomide
(TMZ) in Glioblastoma chemotherapy cause DNA damage by
adding the methyl group to DNA bases which stall damaged
cells at G2 / M cell cycle and consequently result in apoptosis.
Damage is repaired by O6-methylguanine methyltransferase
(MGMT) enzyme. In GBM patients, high expression of enzyme
is associated with resistance. Other mechanism causing TMZ
cytotoxicity could be due to cancer stem cells (CSC). In this
study, our aim is to make GBM therapy more effective by
investigating the role of GBM stem cells in drug resistance.
Firstly,characterization of CSC are determined with CD133 and
Sox1 protein expressions. Additionally, cytotoxicity of TMZ is
compared between CSC and differentiated cancer cells. The
results showed higher resistance of CSC to temozolomide. The
results of this study suggest that to improve parient’s outcome,
CSC resistance needs to be targeted for more effective
treatment.
Speaker Biography
Meryem Alagoz completed her BSc studies in Medical Biology at Cerrahpasa
Medical School, and pursued her MSc studies in Molecular Biology and Genetic
Engineering at University of Sussex. She attained her PhD from University of Sussex.
Her PhD project work involved the investigation of genetic alterations in human
breast and ovarian cancer. She had worked as a Post-doctoral research fellow at
Kings College and Imperial College. She worked at Sussex University for 7 years as
a research fellow and still collaborating with them for my research. She have been
investigating the molecular mechanisms involved in the development of human
diseases such as cancer and brain. She has been working as an assistant professor
at Molecular Biology and Genetics department of Biruni University since February
2017. She have been setting up the research and diagnostic laboratories at the
Genome centre..In near future, she would like to focus on DNA damage and repair
field where I gained extensive experience during my studies and research. She will
employ these experiences to research into broader area of genetic disorders.
e:
malagoz@biruni.edu.tr