Brain tumors account for almost one third of childhood cancers and 31% of all deaths. Medulloblastomas (MB) is the child brain tumor that causes the largest number of deaths and the survivors often suffer life long damages due to aggressive treatment.
A perinatal CMV infection can be devastating and is the most important cause of congenital brain disorders among newborns. These damages originates from alterations in neural stem cells during central nervous system development. However, most pregnancy CMV infections likely go unrecognized despite viral exposure of stem cells during the embryonal development.
The development of cancer is due to alterations in cellular programs, and it is therefore plausible that brain cancer in children has its origin in viral infections. The cellular programs regulate the genetic material by mechanisms called epigenetics. Epigenetic mechanisms are the operating system of the cells, and they are altered in cancer development. Our new findings show that CMV can alter the epigenetic mechanisms in cell systems. We have also shown that current drugs which can target epigenetic mechanisms, also affect how infective CMV is. We intend to continue our studies of how CMV is involved in the origin of MB. Our goal is to understand the background of child brain cancer and to develop new treatments against it. Hence we are in need of financial support, in order to involve another researcher in our team that will help us in our struggle against this very severe form of cancer.
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