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An epigenetic therapy for diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas

Nature Medicine volume 20, pages 1378–1379 (2014)Cite this article

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Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma is a uniformly lethal malignant tumor of infancy with no effective therapies. A new study reveals that inhibition of JMJD3 has robust antitumor activity in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma xenografts.

Despite advances in chemotherapy and radiation over the past 40 years, the outcome for children with diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPGs) remains almost uniformly fatal, with survival of less than 12 months despite numerous trials of chemotherapy, targeted agents and radiation therapy1. These diffuse tumors are admixed with the normal neural structures of the pons, a portion of the brainstem that comprises several life-sustaining nuclei, precluding surgical resection, and they undergo only transient responses to radiation. Development of new therapies has been hampered by a paucity of surgical samples and model systems.

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Figure 1: The H3.1 K27M altered chromatin state is reversible by JMJD3 inhibition.

Katie Vicari/Nature Publishing Group

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marc Remke and Michael D. Taylor are in the Division of Neurosurgery, Vijay Ramaswamy, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,

    Vijay Ramaswamy, Marc Remke & Michael D Taylor

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  1. Vijay Ramaswamy
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  2. Marc Remke
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  3. Michael D Taylor
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Correspondence to Michael D Taylor.

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Ramaswamy, V., Remke, M. & Taylor, M. An epigenetic therapy for diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas. Nat Med 20, 1378–1379 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3769

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