Medulloblastoma is a common and lethal malignant brain tumor in children, classified by the WHO as grade 4 in terms of malignancy and divided into four molecular subgroups associated with different clinical characteristics and prognoses. Standard treatment includes surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, but severe and long-lasting side effects occur, especially in children. Therefore, there is an urgent need for more effective and less toxic therapies. Immunotherapy has emerged as a more targeted and less toxic therapeutic alternative for cancer patients, including immune checkpoint blockade. In a previous study by our group, we showed that medulloblastomas exhibit high CD24 expression. Currently, strategies are being developed to block this immune checkpoint, but understanding its involvement in medulloblastomas is limited.
This project aims to determine the CD24 protein’s biological role and assess its blockade’s impact on the interaction between tumor cells and the immune system, with the goal of using it as a potential therapeutic target in medulloblastomas. Specifically, this project intends to: 1) Evaluate the biological role of the CD24 protein in medulloblastomas using in vitro and in vivo models; 2) Assess the impact of CD24 blockade on the interaction between tumor cells and macrophages by establishing heterotypic spheroids; 3) Evaluate the potential of CD24 as a therapeutic target – pilot in vivo study.