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Neuronal mimicry mechanisms promote the growth of small-cell lung cancer in the brain [human astrocytes RNA-seq]

ABSTRACT: Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a fatal form of cancer that frequently metastasizes to the brain. Here we investigated the mechanisms allowing SCLC cells to grow in the unique brain microenvironment. We found that neuronal programs upregulated in SCLC cells during tumor progression and upon growth in the brain are critical for SCLC growth in the brain. Mechanistically, the presence of SCLC cells in the brain re-activates astrocytes, which in turn promote the survival of SCLC cells by secreting neuronal pro-survival factors such as SERPINE1. We also identified Reelin, a molecule produced by developing neurons to recruit astrocytes, as a molecule secreted by SCLC cells to recruit astrocytes to the tumor site and promote SCLC growth in the brain. Thus, SCLC cells co-opt mechanisms normally at play between astrocytes and neurons to promote SCLC growth in the brain. Targeting such developmental neuronal programs may help treat brain metastases.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE178738 | GEO | 2023/08/09

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:The poor prognosis of diffuse gliomas is the consequence of adaptive growth and survival programs coupled to their unsurmountable capacity to infiltrate the brain. Diffuse brain infiltration is a particularly detrimental hallmark of gliomas, however the underlying cellular and signaling mechanisms remain elusive. Histological analysis of glioma samples suggests brain invasion by individual glioma cells extending along blood vessels and nerve tracts, consistent with individual-cell growth and invasion programs. However, using thick 3D tissue sections, we here show that human diffuse gliomas consist of multicellular networks in both tumor center and invasion region. This was confirmed in three orthotopic human glioma xenograft models in mouse brain reflecting neuronal, proneural and mesenchymal subtypes. The connections between glioma cells are provided by either branched filamentous protrusions connecting cells across distance or epithelial-like linear adherens junctions between directly adjacent cells. These intercellular contacts showed dynamic turn-over kinetics, which enabled intercellularly synchronized calcium signaling waves, directionally persistent migration as network and network plasticity. Interference with the stability of adherens junction by downregulating p120-catenin causes irreversibly compromised cell-cell interaction, near-complete inhibition of diffuse brain infiltration and a severe growth defect and marginalized microlesions as outcome. Mining of human glioma cohorts revealed an inverse association of p120 with patient survival and, using next-generation RNA sequencing, profound cell reprogramming with perturbed cell adhesion and axonal guidance pathways was uncovered after p120 downregulation. In conclusion, reminiscent of neuronal and glial progenitor programs during morphogenesis and repair, diffuse gliomas progress as neuronal-like, collective network the subunits of which cooperate by complex cell-cell signaling to promote cell growth and detrimental brain infiltration. Targeting adherens junctions and cell-cell cooperation thus represent unanticipated therapeutic principles to prevent glioma progression.

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Neuronal mimicry mechanisms promote the growth of small-cell lung cancer in the brain [human astrocytes RNA-seq]

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