Cracking the Histone Code: Characterizing Pediatric Brain Tumor Epigenetics using Cerebrospinal Fluid

Epigenetics is the collection of outside influences on genes that can affect their protein expression. Researchers hypothesize that tumor epigenetic signatures may serve as biomarkers of disease for diagnosis and may provide insight into tumor growth. The goal of this project is to determine patterns of tumor-specific protein expression in tumor tissue and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collected from children with glioma. Expression patterns of specific proteins known as histones will be correlated with patterns of gene expression to determine their usefulness as biomarkers of disease and response to therapy. This research has the potential to improve clinical outcomes for children with glioma by facilitating safer clinical diagnosis, informing effective therapeutic agents, and enabling monitoring of treatment response. All by using clinically accessible CSF specimens in lieu of tumor tissue. The Children’s Brain Tumor Network contributed to this project by providing cerebral spinal fluid and tissue samples and by providing access to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Atlas. Matched CSF and tumor tissue specimens are required to conduct the proposed research. The CBTN contains this precious resource from children with low grade, high grade and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, with multiple collection events in some instances, making it’s contribution invaluable to this project.