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Gliomas, especially secondary glioblastomas, are affected with hypermethylation of the promoter region of the DUSP4 gene. Further studies have shown a significant correlation between hypermethylation of DUSP4 and prolonged survival of glioblastoma patients. Similar correlation has also been observed with MGMT promoter methylation and treatment of Glioblastoma patients with alkylating agents.

The present invention therefore provides a predictive epigenetic parameter for diagnosis or prognosis of gliomas and may be useful for prediction of the responsiveness to certain therapies. It further describes an improved method for the determination of the promoter methylation, which is applicable for the clinical setting. This invention provides an opportunity for the development of therapeutics for secondary glioblastomas.

Glioblastomas with 2000-3000 incidences per year in Germany are the most frequent malignant tumor of the brain, are difficult to treat and show a broad variation in progression and survival rates. This requires prognostic parameters beyond the TNM-tumour classification system and histological analyses in order to provide an improved basis for therapeutic decisions. While therapeutics have been developed for targeting EGF-receptor mutants expressed in primary glioblastomas, no such drug is available for secondary glioblastomas.

Epigenetic abberations in malignancies offer novel thera-peutic targets and the FDA has already approved two drugs modulating the DNA methylation status in tumors. Accordingly there is a need for the development of optimal therapeutic strategies on epigenetic basis. 

Benefits

• Epigenetic parameter for survival of glioblastoma patients and other cancers;
• Potential predictive in vitro parameter for chemotherapeutic treatment;
• Tool for cost-effective and quantifiable analysis of promoter methylation;
• Potential therapeutic target in gliomas.

Contact

Dr. Solveig Nicole Söding
phone: +49 208 94 105 35
so(at)provendis.info

About PROvendis GmbH

PROvendis offers companies certified and patented innovations from 24 North Rhine-Westphalian universities. The core function of the enterprise is to market patentable and commercially exploitable inventions. PROvendis GmbH was founded in 2001 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Zenit GmbH, a management consultancy firm in cooperation with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Since January of 2002, PROvendis has been the service provider for the universities of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Within the scope of the BMBF commercialization campaign, the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) supports the activities of PROvendis. 

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