Defining the roles of fibroblast growth factor receptors on glioblastoma stem-like and non-stem cell populations

胶质母细胞瘤是成人最常见的脑癌类型，目前尚无治愈方法。癌症周围环境中不同类型的癌细胞、正常细胞和蛋白质的复杂混合物使得寻找新的治疗方法变得困难。我们的项目将研究一种名为FGF2的蛋白质如何影响给定肿瘤内不同类型的胶质母细胞瘤细胞。我们正在研究FGF2以不同的方式影响这些不同类型的胶质母细胞瘤细胞的方式，其中一些细胞在对FGF2的直接反应中变得更具侵略性。我们认为FGF2通过附着在不同细胞表面的不同类型的受体上来实现这一点。我们将研究如何通过它们表面上的特定受体来区分每种癌细胞类型，以及哪些受体引起最严重的反应以及这些反应如何在任何给定的肿瘤中分布。通过了解FGF2及其受体的功能，我们可以更好地了解胶质母细胞瘤的侵袭性，并利用它来帮助开发新的治疗方法。这将有助于我们将更多的靶向药物集中在这些特定的受体上，而且重要的是，它提供了一种预测哪些患者将从这种治疗中获益最多的方法。

Glioblastoma is the most common type of brain cancer in adults, with no known cure. The complex mixture of different types of cancer cells, normal cells and proteins in the environment surrounding the cancer makes finding new therapies difficult. Our project will investigate how a protein called FGF2 influences different types of glioblastoma cells within a given tumour. We are researching the way in which FGF2 affects these different types of glioblastoma cells in different ways, with some becoming more aggressive in direct response to FGF2. We propose that FGF2 does this by attaching to different types of receptors on the surface of the different cell types. We will investigate how each cancer cell type can be distinguished by the specific receptors they have on their surface, and also which receptors cause the most severe responses and how these are distributed within any given tumour. By understanding the function of FGF2 and its receptors, we can get a better understanding of the aggressive nature of glioblastoma and use this to help with the development of new treatments. This will help us to focus more targeted drugs at these specific receptors, and also importantly, provides a means of predicting which patients would benefit most from this therapy.