Recent studies have begun to reveal surprising levels of cell diversity in the human brain, both in adults and during development. Distinctive cellular phenotypes point to complex molecular profiles, cellular hierarchies and signaling pathways in neural stem cells, progenitor cells, neuronal and glial cells. Several recent reports have suggested that neural stem and progenitor cell types found in the developing and adult brain share several properties and phenotypes with cells from brain primary tumors, such as gliomas. This transcriptomic crosstalk may help us to better understand the cell hierarchies and signaling pathways in both gliomas and the normal brain, and, by clarifying the phenotypes of cells at the origin of the tumor, to therapeutically address their most relevant signaling pathways.
Keywords: cancer stem-like cells; gliogenesis; glioma; human neural progenitors; human neural stem cells; neurogenesis; primary cerebral tumors; single-cell RNA-seq.