CCL2 – a critical inducer of Smac mimetic-induced migration and invasion in glioblastoma cells and its impact on the tumor microenvironment

The highly malignant glioblastoma (GBM) is the most frequent brain tumor and has a very poor prognosis with a short median survival. Its aggressiveness especially in migration and invasion has been linked, beside others, to constitutively activated NF-κappaB (NF-κB). Inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) proteins are often overexpressed in GBM and other cancer entities and associated with therapy resistance and poor prognosis. IAPproteins are antagonized by second mitochondria -derived activator of caspases (Smac) released from mitochondria during apoptosis leading to the development of small pharmacological inhibitors,…