However, this is a controversial opinion, with recent in-depth studies failing to find an association between viral infection and glioma growth. There is also evidence that previous studies may have been impacted by false-positive antibody staining artifacts. Other causes
Though some studies have shown that farmers have higher rates of gliomas compared to the general population, exposure to farm animals or manure is not associated with glioma. Later studies have not found an association between farming and gliomas; similar conflicting data concerns teachers and glioma. More consistent data show that architects, surveyors, retail workers, butchers, and engineers have higher rates of gliomas. Most studies have found that pesticide exposure is probably not a cause of glioma, though a minority of studies have found an association. Inherited polymorphisms of the DNA repair genes
Germ-line (inherited) polymorphisms of the DNA repair genes ERCC1, ERCC2 (XPD) and XRCC1 increase the risk of glioma. This indicates that altered or deficient repair of DNA damage contributes to the formation of gliomas. DNA damages are a likely major primary cause of progression to cancer in general. Excess DNA damages can give rise to mutations through translesion synthesis. Furthermore, incomplete DNA repair can give rise to epigenetic alterations or epimutations. Such mutations and epimutations may provide a cell with a proliferative advantage which can then, by a process of natural selection, lead to progression to cancer.Epigenetic repression of DNA repair genes is often found in progression to sporadic glioblastoma.
For instance, methylation of the DNA repair gene MGMT promoter was observed in 51% to 66% of glioblastoma specimens. In addition, in some glioblastomas, the MGMT protein is deficient due to another type of epigenetic alteration. MGMT protein expression may also be reduced due to increased levels of a microRNA that inhibits the ability of the MGMT messenger RNA to produce the MGMT protein. Zhang et al. found, in the glioblastomas without methylated MGMT promoters, that the level of microRNA miR-181d is inversely correlated with protein expression of MGMT and that the direct target of miR-181d is the MGMT mRNA 3UTR (the three prime untranslated region of MGMT messenger RNA).Epigenetic reductions in expression of another DNA repair protein, ERCC1, were found in an assortment of 32 gliomas. For 17 of the 32 (53%) of the gliomas tested, ERCC1 protein expression was reduced or absent. In the case of 12 gliomas (37.5%) this reduction was due to methylation of the ERCC1 promoter. For the other 5 gliomas with reduced ERCC1 protein expression, the reduction could have been due to epigenetic alterations in microRNAs that affect ERCC1 expression.When expression of DNA repair genes is reduced, DNA damages accumulate in cells at a higher than normal level, and such excess damages cause increased frequencies of mutation. Mutations in gliomas frequently occur in either isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) 1 or 2 genes. One of these mutations (mostly in IDH1) occurs in about 80% of low grade gliomas and secondary high-grade gliomas. Wang et al.