Profiling anti-apoptotic protein BCL-xL expression in U-87 MG glioblastoma cells and patient-derived tumorspheres

Abstract

Glioblastoma is one of the cancers with the worst prognosis, despite huge efforts to understand its unusual heterogeneity and aggressiveness. These are mainly attributable to glioblastoma stem cells, which are also responsible for the frequent tumour recurrence following surgery or chemo/radiotherapy. We report here that tumorspheres derived from the U-87 MG glioblastoma cells have an increased expression of the anti-apoptotic protein BCL-xL. Modulation of this expression in tumorspheres enlightened us on the potential role of apoptosis and BCL-2 proteins might play in the survival of glioblastoma stem cells. Moreover, increased BCL-xL expression appears to sensitise glioblastoma cells to the newly developed BH3 mimetics, opening new therapeutic perspectives for treating glioblastoma patients.