Anita is a 2nd year PhD candidate at Western Sydney University and is collaborating with researchers at Hawkesbury Insititute for the Environment. She completed her Bachelor of Science (Hons) in 2014, also at Western Sydney University.

Protein arginine methylation is a post-translational modification involved in many cellular processes, such as, regulation of signal transduction, facilitating protein-protein interactions, RNA transport and splicing. It is becoming increasingly evident that protein arginine methylation is also an important regulator of the cell cycle and DNA damage repair pathways. Important regulatory proteins, such as cyclin D1, p53, p21, and the retinoblastoma protein are methylated or associate with protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs), the enzymes responsible for arginine methylation. PRMTs are often overexpressed in cancers, leading to aberrant methylation patterns correlating with poor disease prognosis. Brain cancer is one of the most aggressive types of cancer- the 5 year survival rate for patients in Australia with brain cancer is only 20%. PRMT1 forms a complex, the methylosome, to initiate methylation of H4R3 to activate transcription of glioblastoma genes, such as EGFR, AKT3, and CDK6. PRMT5 overexpression correlates with increased cell proliferation and its knockdown resulted in cell cycle arrest leading to apoptosis. My study seeks to further investigate the role of protein arginine methylation in the cell cycle of glioblastoma cells, specifically through the interaction of mortalin with p53. Mortalin is normally found in neurons only; however it has also been found in glioblastoma tissues with expression levels correlating with tumor aggresivenss. Preliminary data has shown mortalin to be methylated on an arginine within the p53-binding domain, suggesting that methylation may play a role in the localisation of mortalin or its interaction with other proteins

Olga Kirsanova has a special interest in neurosciences and medical imaging of the brain. several papers were submitted under the neurological sciences

Chronic pain syndrome (CPS) is currently seen as an independent disease requiring etiopathogenetic treatment. Optimal way for cancer patients is opioid therapy. By reason of permanent presence of symptoms, the method of choice are implantable close sterile systems that do not require regular invasive procedures with minimal side «opioid» effects, that allow to stop strong pain, including "breakthrough pain." Thus the functional neurosurgery takes the increasing place in oncology. First experience in Russia applying programmable morphine infusion pumps for severe cancer pain belonged to P.Herzen Moscow Oncology Research Institute. The most significant indications for pump implantation were: the presence of heavy cancer pain (VAS>60), inefficiency of previous narcotic analgesics at doses equivalent to 30 mg morphine, life expectancy more than 3 months, and positive morphine test. Morphine pump installed 62 patients in 2013-2015. All patients diagnosed with CPS intensity of 60-100 % by VAS (average 91,6 ± 6,9), 28 patients had severe neyropatic pain. Side effects of opioid therapy were present in all patients. Implantation and pump programming was carried out according to the accepted method. All the patient the intensity of pain in all patients decreased to 0-20 % by VAS (p-value= 0,000301). Morphine dose vary from 180 to 9500 mg/day. All treated patients completely stopped taking opioids. We registered increase of motion activity in 51 cases, absence of sedation effects, improved somatic status. However, 26 patients with a long history of receiving opioid (over six months) from the second day developed specific withdrawal symptoms caused by the termination of systemic effects of opiates, requiring symptomatic therapy for 4-10 days. All patients reported more effective pain relief, lack of systemic side effects and increase quality of life after the selection of the Individual mode morphine pump. In patients with refractory cancer pain, intrathecal drug therapy with programmable morphine pumps is associated with improved pain reporting, reduced breakthrough pain and a significant improvement in the quality of life

Tsz Wai Rosita Pang is a PhD student at the Retinal & Developmental Neurobiology Laboratory, University of Sydney. Her research aims to find better treatments for Glioblastoma Multiforme, the most common and lethal type of brain tumours, with the use of ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles.

This study investigated the in vitro cytotoxic effects of Ultrasmall Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (USPIONs) uptake on GBM function. USPIONs with a mean core diameter between 10 – 15 nm were loaded to CNS-1 cells cultures at different concentration (10-200µg/mL) and its cytotoxic effects were assessed in different time-point (2-24hr). Rat CNS-1 was chosen as our GBM model in this study because it was developed to obtain a histocompatible astrocytoma cell line with infiltrative and growth pattern similar to human gliomas. The uptake of USPIONs was analysed using the JEOL1011 transmission electron microscope (TEM) and the iron quantification was assessed using Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (GFAAS). The cell viability and the mitopotential were measured using the MUSE Count & Viability Kit and the MUSE Mitopotential Assay Kit. Bioenergetics was examined using Seahorse Mito Stress Test. TEM showed that USPIONs entered CNS-1 via clatherin coated pits which were then internalized in vacuoles. The biological effects of USPIONs on CNS-1 cell viability and mitopotential were dose and time-dependent. USPIONs at 5-200µg/mL decreased the cell viability of CNS-1 cells at 12 hr (Control: 100%±0, USPIONs: 74.62%±2.11, P <0.05). USPIONs at 10-200µg/mL increased the percentage of total depolarized cells at 12 hr (Control: 0.03±0.01, USPIONs: 0.37±0.12, P <0.05). Through these studies, it deepened our understanding of the cytotoxic effects of USPIONs on GBM function.

Jun Hong is from Shohada Tajrish Neurosurgical Center of Excellence, Functional Neurosurgery Research Center of Shohada Tajrish Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Objective: Extent of tumor resection poses a special challenge for neurosurgeons. Image guided surgery (IGS) has become an established technology in surgical management of cerebral tumors, which provides detailed 3D localization of the lesion around important cerebrovasculature and tracts. Since there are few studies regarding using this technology as a part of standard care for patients with cerebral gliomas, we set out to determine whether IGS could improve extent of tumor resection in patients with cerebral gliomas involving eloquent cortical areas along with more desirable prognosis. Materials and Methods: From January 2013 till October 2015, 26 patients with cerebral gliomas involving eloquent cortical areas were randomized equally into trial group (IGS) and control group (conventional surgery). Patients in trial group underwent functional multislice 3 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) 48 hours before surgery. DTI datasets were merged with anatomical structures, and the relationship between the tumor and adjacent tracts were reconstructed for 3D visualization. Completeness of tumor resection, including volumetric analysis, was examined by early post-operative MRI. Results: The statistic analysis confirmed well balance of main variations in both groups. Average mean pre-operative tumor volume in trial and control group was 70.37±7.96 cm3 and 68.82±7.85 cm3 respectively. No significant difference was observed between pre-operative tumor volumes in both groups (P value>0.05). Early post-operative MRI revealed 4.11±2.92 cm3 and 8.78±4.79 cm3 as mean residual tumor volume in trial and control group respectively (P value<0.05). Eleven patients (84.61%) in trial group experienced radical resection (>95%); however, radical resection was just achieved in 3 patients (23.07%) (P value<0.05). While there was no significant difference between mean Karnofsky performance scale (KPS) in both groups of patients before operation, 88.09±20.43 and 66.38±19.32 were recorded as mean KPS for trial and control group respectively (P value<0.05). In addition, excellent outcome ratio (KPS=90-100) was achieved in 76.92% of trial group, while this value was 30.76% in control group (P value<0.05). Conclusions: IGS using neuronavigation system combined with DTI, allows 3D evaluation of the cerebral tumor and their adjacent structures, along with tract mapping for neurosurgeons. Furthermore, this technology can aid to plan the optimal trajectory and higher extent of tumor resection with minimal post-operative neurological deficits.