Implication of AurA kinase in GBM cells chemotaxis in response to the production of CXCL12 in the subventricular zones

Despite great improvement in standard therapies (i.e. surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy) of glioblastoma (GBM), the median survival rate is 15 months due to patient relapses. A major advance in the understanding of GBM recurrences has been the identification of GBM-initiating cells (GIC). GIC are thought to be deeply involved in GBM recurrences. Our lab designed a mouse model by grafting human GBM cells in the striatum. After the graft, we observed that tumors develop in the mouse striatum and that GIC specifically invade the subventricular zones (SVZ). SVZ are stem cells niches crucial for adult neurogenesis which seems particularly propitious for gliomagenesis since they are abundant in growth factors and permissive to proliferation. We therefore looked for soluble factors secreted by the SVZ environment and demonstrated that the local production of the CXCL12 chemokine in the SVZ is responsible for the GIC-directed migration. In this work, we aim to study the role GBM therapeutic resistance associated with the invasion of the SVZ. In this work, we identified a new actor of the CXCL12 pathway by the phosphoproteome analysis of U87MG cells stimulated with CXCL12: the mitotic kinase Aurora A (AurA) whose activity seems crucial for the CXCL12-dependent chemotaxis of GBM cells