FMRP affects glioblastoma progression regulating invasion-associated genes

Converging evidence indicates that the Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein (FMRP) can modulate the aggressiveness of cancer. While FMRP functions have been extensively studied and partially uncovered in brain development, its involvement in the biology of brain tumours has not been explored yet. Here we show that FMRP expression directly correlates with worse outcome in patients with glioblastoma (GBM). Furthermore, high FMRP expression levels promote brain infiltration and tumour growth in xenografts generated with human GBM stem-like cells (GSCs). Finally, the FMRP-regulated transcriptome of human GSCs highlights canonical pathways involved in the stemness properties and extracellular matrix remodelling ability. Our findings strengthened the role of FMRP in cancer and provide molecular evidence on its involvement in GBM progression.