CRB2 enhances malignancy of glioblastoma via activation of the NF-κB pathway

Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most lethal types of primary brain tumors in adults with a median survival of less than 15 months. Although comprehensive clinical treatment strategies including surgical resection followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy are widely applied, the prognosis for GBM patients remains dismal. The Nuclear Factor-κB (NF-κB) signaling pathway is a complex network linking extracellular stimuli to cell survival and proliferation, and aberrant activation of NF-κB signaling has been implicated in the propagation of a wide range of cancers. However, the underlying mechanism of NF-κB activation still requires further investigation. Here, we report that crumbs homolog 2 (CRB2) is markedly up-regulated in human GBM relative to non-tumor tissues or normal astrocytes. Clinically, enriched CRB2 could be observed in high grade glioma with IDH IDH wild-type and 1p19q co-deletion and implied poor outcome in GBM. Consistent with this, malignant characteristics of GBM cells including proliferation, migration, invasion and tumorigenesis were significantly suppressed by lentivirus knock-down of CRB2. Furthermore, exogenous overexpression of CRB2 enhanced the malignant biological signatures of GBM cells as well as therapy resistance to temozolomide (TMZ). To further investigate the molecular mechanisms responsible, bioinformatics analysis was performed using 3 public databases, with the result that CRB2 was found to correlate closely with tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα)-NF-κB signaling. Mechanistically, elevated CRB2 increased the phosphorylation of IκB-kinase α (IKKα), thus activating NF-κB via reduction of Ikβ protein. Taken together, these data suggest that CRB2 might be a reliable prognostic biomarker and potential therapeutic target for GBM.