BackgroundNeural stem cells are currently being investigated as potential therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, and trauma. However, concerns have been raised over the safety of this experimental therapeutic approach, including, for example, whether there is the potential for tumors to develop from transplanted stem cells.Methods and FindingsA boy with ataxia telangiectasia (AT) was treated with intracerebellar and intrathecal injection of human fetal neural stem cells. Four years after the first treatment he was diagnosed with a multifocal brain tumor. The biopsied tumor was diagnosed as a glioneuronal neoplasm. We compared the tumor cells and the patient's peripheral blood cells by fluorescent in situ hybridization using X and Y chromosome probes, by PCR for the amelogenin gene X- and Y-specific alleles, by MassArray for the ATM patient specific mutation and for several SNPs, by PCR for polymorphic microsatellites, and by human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing. Molecular and cytogenetic studies showed that the tumor was of nonhost origin suggesting it was derived from the transplanted neural stem cells. Microsatellite and HLA analysis demonstrated that the tumor is derived from at least two donors.ConclusionsThis is the first report of a human brain tumor complicating neural stem cell therapy. The findings here suggest that neuronal stem/progenitor cells may be involved in gliomagenesis and provide the first example of a donor-derived brain tumor. Further work is urgently needed to assess the safety of these therapies.

The circular dichroism spectrum of barnase has been analyzed by examining the spectra of a series of mutants in which every single aromatic residue has been replaced. The spectrum of wild-type barnase is quite atypical for a protein of the alpha + beta class, with very low intensities and a minimum in the far-UV at 231 nm. The minimum at 231 nm is associated with the presence of Trp-94. Many other mutations involving aromatic residues have an effect on the spectral features in the far-UV. The major features in the near-UV spectra arise from essentially additive contributions of the three tryptophan residues Trp-35, Trp-71, and Trp-94. Tyrosine contributions are less prominent, with Tyr-78 and Tyr-97 contributing the most to the CD spectrum. The close charge-aromatic interaction between Trp-94 and His-18, which is important for the fluorescence properties of the protein, contributes little to the CD spectrum, as does the close aromatic-aromatic interaction between Tyr-13 and Tyr-17. However, the observed near-UV spectrum of wild-type barnase could not be simulated by the sum of the contributions of aromatic residues defined by difference spectra of protein variants carrying aromatic residues. Aromatic residues play an important role in determining the circular dichroism spectrum of proteins not only in the near-UV but also in the far-UV region.

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Fluorescence spectra of wild-type barnase and mutants in which tryptophan and histidine residues have been substituted have been analyzed to give the individual contributions of the three tryptophan residues. The spectrum is dominated by the contribution of Trp-35. The fluorescence intensity varies with pH according to an ionization of a pKa of 7.75. This pKa is close to that previously determined by NMR titration of the C2-H resonances of His-18 as a function of pH (Sali et al., 1989). This histidine residue is close to Trp-94. The pH dependence of the spectrum is abolished when either His-18 or Trp-94 is mutated, and so appears to be caused by the His-18/Trp-94 interaction. The spectral response of this interaction can serve as a probe of the folding pathway and of electrostatic effects within the protein. Changes in the fluorescence spectra on substitution of Trp-94 and His-18 suggest that there is net energy transfer from Trp-71 to Trp-94.