Differential Signaling Pathways in Medulloblastoma: Nano-biomedicine Targeting Non-coding Epigenetics to Improve Current and Future Therapeutics.

BACKGROUND: Medulloblastomas (MDB) are malignant, aggressive brain tumors that primarily affect children. The survival rate for children under 14 is approximately 72%, while for ages 15 to 39, it is around 78%. A growing body of evidence suggests that dysregulation of signaling mechanisms and noncoding RNA epigenetics play a pivotal role in this disease.

METHODOLOGY: This study conducted an electronic search of articles on websites like PubMed and Google. The current review also used an in silico databases search and bioinformatics analysis and an extensive comprehensive literature search for original research articles and review articles as well as retrieval of current and future medications in clinical trials.

RESULTS: This study indicates that several signaling pathways, such as sonic hedgehog, WNT/β-catenin, unfolded protein response mediated ER stress, notch, neurotrophins and TGF-β and ERK, MAPK, and ERK play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of MDB. Gene and ncRNA/protein are also involved as an axis long ncRNA to sponge micro-RNAs that affect downstream signal proteins expression and translation affection disease pathophysiology, prognosis and present potential target hit for drug repurposing. Current treatment options include surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy; unfortunately, the disease often relapses, and the survival rate is less than 5%. Therefore, there is a need to develop more effective treatments to combat recurrence and improve survival rates.

CONCLUSION: This review describes various MDB disease hallmarks, including the signaling mechanisms involved in pathophysiology, related-causal genes, epigenetics, downstream genes/epigenes, and possibly the causal disease genes/non-protein coding (nc)RNA/protein axis. Additionally, the challenges associated with MDB treatment are discussed, along with how they are being addressed using nano-technology and nano-biomedicine, with a listing of possible treatment options and future potential treatment modalities.