CHICAGO, May 2 (Xinhua) -- A research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates that the growth of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) brain tumors is driven by nearby noncancerous neurons and immune cells, and that targeting immune cells slows tumor growth in mice.
The researchers studied mice with NF1 mutations and optic gliomas. The team previously had discovered that the tumor cells in optic gliomas are interspersed with immune cells that help drive tumor formation and growth.
Suspecting that neurons also might be contributing to tumor growth, the researchers examined human neurons with NF1 mutations that had been grown from stem cells. They discovered that the neurons release a protein that activates immune cells known as T cells, which then produce proteins that promote the growth of tumor cells.
The findings jibe with data from people with low-grade gliomas. By analyzing two publicly available datasets, the researchers found that patients whose tumors had more of a kind of T cell known as CD8+ T cells had reduced overall survival.
Disrupting the communication between neurons, T cells and tumor cells potentially could slow the growth of tumors, the researchers said. In the study, they removed T cells from mice with optic gliomas, or prevented T cells from getting into the brains of such mice. In both scenarios, the researchers found that the optic gliomas grew more slowly in the absence of T cells.
"What we have here is a new way of thinking about how neurons and immune cells interact to control tumor growth, adding important new insights to the emerging field of cancer neuroscience," said senior author David H. Gutmann, a professor of neurology and director of the Washington University Neurofibromatosis Center. "We are excited about harnessing these critical interactions to develop new therapeutic strategies for childhood brain tumors."
NF1 affects about one in every 3,000 people. It is caused by any one of a variety of mutations in the NF1 gene. While people with NF1 usually come to medical attention for birthmarks on their skin, nearly one in five children with NF1 will develop a brain tumor on the optic nerve, called an optic glioma.
The findings were published Friday in Nature Communications. Enditem
