Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta | Children’s Healthcare of Los Angeles

Children’s Healthcare of Los Angeles

Childrens Hospital Los Angeles Through a unique partnership with Childerns Hospital of Los Angeles IFF is accomplishing remarkable research into Glial tumors of the brain. Glial tumors of the brain are heterogeneous. This includes genetic, histologic, and metabolic features. Using in vivo MR spectroscopy we observed citrate in pediatric brain tumors. A preliminary analysis of existing data suggests that tumors with prominent citrate, including lesions that have been labeled as “low-grade gliomas”, have a high likelihood for malignant progression. In this research we investigate whether prominent citrate reflects a metabolic condition that is associated with increased risk for progressive disease and explore possible mechanisms for citrate accumulation in pediatric brain tumors in vivo in patients.

Specific aims:

Determine whether the presence of citrate at baseline predicts future malignant degeneration of low-grade gliomas

Explore the mechanism of citrate accumulation and its location at a cellular /sub-cellular level