Blocking Brain Tumour Growth by Targeting a Key Growth Factor
Fast facts
- Title: Blocking Diffuse Midline Glioma by targeting HMGB2 chromatin factor
- Lead Researcher: Professor Luciano Di Croce
- Where: Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona
- When: February 2025-January 2028
- Cost: We will fund £86,000 (total grant award £216,000, with Worldwide Cancer Research) over 3 years
- Research type: Paediatric, High-Grade, Glioma
Diffuse midline gliomas (DMGs) are a rare but particularly aggressive type of childhood brain tumour that spread fast and currently have no cure. We urgently need to understand more about how these tumours develop so that in the future better treatments are available to help children with DMG. By understanding what drives DMG development, researchers hope to find clues towards new targeted treatments.
Professor Di Croce and his team have identified a possible new way to precisely target DMG. They aim to establish exactly what drives DMG tumours and investigate the best target for a potential new treatment. By the end of this project, they hope to have moved an important step closer to finding a cure for this devastating childhood cancer.
What is it?
Many DMG tumours have mutations, in a gene called H3. H3 contains important instructions that tell your cells how to store and package genetic material properly. But mutations in H3 disrupt this process, and this affects how cells store and use its DNA which can drive cancer growth. Professor Di Croce and his team have been creating a molecular map of all the other genes and molecules that H3 is involved with. They have found several points on this map which could be a good place to target with a new treatment.
The research team can now investigate the most promising of these targets. To do this they are using a special type of cell, called a ‘neurosphere’. They can help the team to understand in more detail exactly how a new treatment might work in humans.
The team are also using tiny cell models of brains in the lab, called organoids. Organoids can help the researchers find out more about how tumour cells interact with healthy areas of the brain.
These tools will allow the team to investigate exactly what drives DMG brain tumours, and what happens when the prime target is blocked. Importantly, they will also study how this affects healthy cells too, as this could indicate potential side effects for any new treatment.
Why is it important?
Research into cures for rare cancers like DMG can be particularly challenging, and progress can take time. The team hope that their exciting new findings will take them one step closer to more effective and life-saving treatments for children diagnosed with a DMG.
-Professor Luciano Di Croce
Cancer knows no borders, and neither should research. International funding and collaboration are crucial for advancing cancer research because they bring together diverse expertise, resources, and perspectives. Shared knowledge accelerates discoveries, improves treatment strategies, and ensures that breakthroughs benefit patients worldwide.
Research is just one other way your regular gift can make a difference
Research is the only way we will discover kinder, more effective treatments and, ultimately, stamp out brain tumours – for good! However, brain tumours are complex and research in to them takes a great deal of time and money.
Across the UK, over 100,000 families are facing the overwhelming diagnosis of a brain tumour and it is only through the generosity of people like you can we continue to help them.
But, by setting up a regular gift – as little as £2 per month – you can ensure that families no longer face this destructive disease.
In this section
Professor Luciano Di Croce
Professor Di Croce is the co-coordinator of the Gene Regulation, Stem Cells and Cancer Programme at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, Spain. Research in his lab focuses on understanding the molecular basis of gene alterations in the early stages of tumour growth. He particularly focuses on the basic mechanisms of gene regulation and the importance of genetic markers, with particular emphasis on gene silencing in cancer.