MDB-01. ELUCIDATING THE ROLE OF THE BAIAP2-CDC42 INTERACTION MEDULLOBLASTOMA

Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor. Despite advancements in treatment, there is still no significant improvement in survival rates. This indicates novel, more effective treatment options are necessary. In addition, when medulloblastoma is metastasized outside the central nervous system, there is worst mortality rate. The regulatory properties of metastasis and invasion are still not well understood. We sought to identify potential key regulators for these processes in medulloblastoma. Single-cell RNA sequencing data was collected for medulloblastoma patients and an experiment with a Tg (Neurod-Smoothened*A1) mouse. We identified BAIAP2 and CDC42 to be differentially expressed compared to non-tumor brain cells. Previous literature shows that these genes are implicated in oncogenic properties including invasion, migration, and proliferation in different cancers and neurological diseases. We hypothesize that distinct cell populations within medulloblastoma should show different expressions of BAIAP2 and CDC42, specifically those involved in invasion and migration. We determined that BAIAP2 and CDC42 have higher expression in medulloblastoma tumors compared to the control. In our data, the cell population enriched for microtubule depolymerization had a high expression of BAIAP2, unlike the other clusters. This study is important because BAIAP2 and CDC42 have yet to be characterized in medulloblastoma. Our data suggest a potential role for BAIAP2 and CDC42 in the pathophysiology of medulloblastoma which can possibly be a target for future studies.