Identification and validation of GPD1 as an essential cancer stem cell specific target in glioblastoma (Ribosome profiling)

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are attractive targets for cancer therapy, however, little is known about how to target CSCs without affecting the normal stem cell population. Here we report the ribosome-profiling analysis of mouse neural stem cells and brain tumour stem cells (BTSCs), which leads to the identification of glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 1 (GPD1) as a CSC- specific determinant. We confirmed that GPD1 is expressed in BTSCs but not in neural stem cells. Intriguingly, expression of GPD1 is only found in the infiltrating dormant BTSCs in vivo and these cells start to divide and drive tumour relapse after chemotherapy. Most importantly, inhibition of GPD1 expression in tumour-bearing mice leads to prolonged survival. Further analysis shows that loss of GPD1 results in widespread changes in important pathways affecting BTSC maintenance. Human patient data analysis suggests that GPD1 is expressed in the dormant infiltrating tumour cells in human glioblastoma and the expression level is associated with a worse prognosis. This study provides an attractive therapeutic target for treating brain tumours and a novel aspect of regulation of CSC dormancy. Overall design: Two neural stem cell samples and three brain tumor stem cell samples are used in ribosome profiling experiments.