Dr. Arnold Etame Receives NIH R01 Award for Glioblastoma Research
Congratulations to Arnold Etame, MD, PhD, a neurosurgeon-scientist in the Department of Neuro-Oncology, who received an NIH R01 Award for his novel research "Targeting Malignant Reprogramming of Glioblastoma Stem Cells Through Dual Inhibition of BIRC3 and S6K1."
Glioblastoma is the most common malignant primary brain in adults and has limited therapeutic options. It is a uniformly lethal cancer with a median survival of less than 15 months despite surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Glioblastoma stem cells represent a small subset of the tumor population that is highly resistant to chemoradiation and serves as the reservoir for tumor recurrence and lethality. Hence, developing therapies that effectively target glioblastoma stem cells could have a significant positive impact on glioblastoma outcomes.
Dr. Etame and his team were the first to identify a novel mediator, BIRC3 and associated mechanisms, that play a critical role in glioblastoma stem cell resistance, treatment outcomes and malignant reprogramming. High BIRC3 expression is associated with glioblastoma recurrence, mesenchymal transition and worse treatment outcomes.
This R01 award will facilitate Dr. Etame’s efforts toward developing a more effective therapy for glioblastoma. The study will further examine optimal strategies for targeting BIRC3-mediated mechanisms in glioblastoma with novel therapeutic agents. Ultimately, the goal would be to advance these novel therapeutic agents into the clinical setting.
A window-of-opportunity clinical trial assessing the brain tumor penetrance and preliminary efficacy of these novel agents are in the works.
Additionally, Dr. Etame and his team have developed a translational research program on the discovery and targeting of mechanisms of therapeutic resistance in glioblastoma and have established a track record of elucidating mechanisms of adaptive resistance evolution in glioblastoma.
Previously Dr. Etame was awarded two NIH R21 awards titled “Modulating glioblastoma stem cell clonal evolution towards therapeutic responsiveness” and “Exploiting epigenetic vulnerabilities in glioblastoma stem cells through reprogramming.”
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References:
nature.com/articles/srep21710
nature.com/articles/s41598-017-09503-8
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8745052/
nature.com/articles/s41598-019-50489-2
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10606804/