OS13.3.A Establishment of a novel system to specifically trace and ablate quiescent/slow cycling cells in high-grade glioma

• Published in: Neuro-oncology (Charlottesville, Va.) Vol. 23; no. Supplement_2; p. ii16
• Main Authors: Antonica, F, Santomaso, L, Aiello, G, Pernici, D, Miele, E, Tiberi, L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 09.09.2021
• ISSN: 1522-8517; 1523-5866
• DOI: 10.1093/neuonc/noab180.051

Abstract BACKGROUND High-grade gliomas are the most common malignant brain tumors, with poor prognosis due to recurrence and tumor infiltration after surgical removal and chemotherapy. Quiescent/slow cycling stem cells have been proposed to be one of the main players of tumor relapse but their involvement in in the infiltration remain unclear. Despite they have been described in mouse models or after transcriptional profiling of human tumor samples, their direct visualization, targeting and ablation remains a challenge. MATERIAL AND METHODS Tumors were induced over-expressing oncogenic forms of MET and p53 in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of P2 mouse brain as well as human forebrain organoids. The co-expression with specific cell cycle sensors as well as lineage specific CreERT2 under control of stem cells promoters allowed to visualize and target glioma stem cells. RESULTS Here, we used a fluorescent cell cycle sensor to visualize quiescent tumor cells in mouse brain cancer and human cancer organoids. In particular, we characterized them within the tumor revealing the invasiveness capacity of slow cycling tumor cells. Furthermore, we generated a new system to specifically trace and ablate such cells. Indeed, lineage tracing experiments allowed to trace quiescent Prom1 progeny in the tumors after temozolomide treatment. In addition, the selective ablation of qProm1 in mouse brain cancer reduced tumor infiltration. Finally, time-lapse experiments showed that slow cycling cells are also able to infiltrate co-cultured human brain cancer organoids. CONCLUSION Overall, our data show that quiescent/slow cycling cells are key driver of tumor invasiveness, the major malignant feature of high-grade brain cancer.