Bredel Findings Address Understanding of Diffuse Gliomas

Markus Bredel, MD, PhD, the Sharon A. Spencer Distinguished Endowed Chair in Translational Radiation Oncology, is lead author on “Haploinsufficiency of NFKBIA reshapes the epigenome antipodal to the IDH mutation and imparts disease fate in diffuse gliomas” in Cell Reports Medicine (2023).

This groundbreaking discovery not only marks a significant milestone in our understanding of diffuse gliomas but also paves the way for improved predictions of disease outcomes and the development of targeted treatment approaches.

Bredel, who is also director of Functional Brain Radiosurgery and head of Brain Tumor Research in the UAB Heersink School of Medicine’s Department of Radiation Oncology at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, reports they have successfully identified and characterized a novel tumor suppressor gene known as NFKBIA in different populations of adult brain tumors, specifically diffuse gliomas. Their findings demonstrate a significant correlation between the loss of NFKBIA and poor prognosis in patients. Moreover, they have observed genome-wide patterns that are either contradictory to or partially resemble two other crucial gene mutations: the IDH mutation in adult gliomas and the H3K27M mutation in pediatric gliomas.