1. Academic Validation
  2. Tumor-associated monocytes promote mesenchymal transformation through EGFR signaling in glioma

Tumor-associated monocytes promote mesenchymal transformation through EGFR signaling in glioma

  • Cell Rep Med. 2023 Aug 25;101177. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2023.101177.
Yiyun Chen 1 Ran Huo 2 Weirong Kang 3 Yuwei Liu 3 Zheng Zhao 4 Weilun Fu 2 Ruochen Ma 5 Xiaomeng Zhang 5 Jihong Tang 5 Zhihan Zhu 5 Qingyang Lyu 3 Yi Huang 3 Mengli Yan 5 Biaobin Jiang 5 Ruichao Chai 6 Zhaoshi Bao 7 Zheng Hu 8 Weiping Wang 9 Tao Jiang 10 Yong Cao 11 Jiguang Wang 12
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Division of Life Science, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China; SIAT-HKUST Joint Laboratory of Cell Evolution and Digital Health, HKUST Shenzhen-Hong Kong Collaborative Innovation Research Institute, Futian, Shenzhen, China.
  • 2 Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China; China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing, China.
  • 3 Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China; Laboratory of Molecular Engineering and Nanomedicine, Dr. Li Dak-Sum Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
  • 4 Division of Life Science, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China; Beijing Neurosurgical Institute, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
  • 5 Division of Life Science, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China.
  • 6 Division of Life Science, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China; SIAT-HKUST Joint Laboratory of Cell Evolution and Digital Health, HKUST Shenzhen-Hong Kong Collaborative Innovation Research Institute, Futian, Shenzhen, China; Beijing Neurosurgical Institute, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
  • 7 Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
  • 8 SIAT-HKUST Joint Laboratory of Cell Evolution and Digital Health, HKUST Shenzhen-Hong Kong Collaborative Innovation Research Institute, Futian, Shenzhen, China; CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China.
  • 9 Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China; Laboratory of Molecular Engineering and Nanomedicine, Dr. Li Dak-Sum Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China. Electronic address: wangwp@hku.hk.
  • 10 Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China; China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing, China; Beijing Neurosurgical Institute, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. Electronic address: taojiang1964@163.com.
  • 11 Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China; China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing, China. Electronic address: caoyong@bjtth.org.
  • 12 Division of Life Science, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China; SIAT-HKUST Joint Laboratory of Cell Evolution and Digital Health, HKUST Shenzhen-Hong Kong Collaborative Innovation Research Institute, Futian, Shenzhen, China; Hong Kong Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, InnoHK, Hong Kong SAR, China. Electronic address: jgwang@ust.hk.
Abstract

The role of brain immune compartments in glioma evolution remains elusive. We profile immune cells in glioma microenvironment and the matched peripheral blood from 11 patients. Glioblastoma exhibits specific infiltration of blood-originated monocytes expressing epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) ligands EREG and AREG, coined as tumor-associated monocytes (TAMo). TAMo infiltration is mutually exclusive with EGFR alterations (p = 0.019), while co-occurring with mesenchymal subtype (p = 4.7 × 10-7) and marking worse prognosis (p = 0.004 and 0.032 in two cohorts). Evolutionary analysis of initial-recurrent glioma pairs and single-cell study of a multi-centric glioblastoma reveal association between elevated TAMo and glioma mesenchymal transformation. Further analyses identify FOSL2 as a TAMo master regulator and demonstrates that FOSL2-EREG/AREG-EGFR signaling axis promotes glioma invasion in vitro. Collectively, we identify TAMo in tumor microenvironment and reveal its driving role in activating EGFR signaling to shape glioma evolution.

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