The Role of Microglia in Glioblastoma

Noelia Geribaldi-Doldán; Cecilia Fernández-Ponce; Roberto Navarro Quiroz; Ismael Sánchez-Gomar; Lorena Gómez Escorcia; Erika Puentes Velásquez; Elkin Navarro Quiroz

doi:10.3389/fonc.2020.603495

The Role of Microglia in Glioblastoma

Front Oncol. 2021 Jan 29:10:603495. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2020.603495. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Noelia Geribaldi-Doldán^{1

2}, Cecilia Fernández-Ponce^{2

3}, Roberto Navarro Quiroz⁴, Ismael Sánchez-Gomar^{2

3}, Lorena Gómez Escorcia^{5

6}, Erika Puentes Velásquez⁵, Elkin Navarro Quiroz^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Departamento de Anatomía y Embriología Humanas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain.
² Instituto de Investigación e Innovación Biomédica de Cádiz (INiBICA), Cádiz, Spain.
³ Departamento de Biomedicina, Biotecnología y Salud Pública. Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain.
⁴ CMCC-Centro de Matemática, Computação e Cognição, Laboratório do Biologia Computacional e Bioinformática-LBCB, Universidade Federal do ABC, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
⁵ Faculty of Basic and Biomedical Sciences, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Barranquilla, Colombia.
⁶ Centro de investigación e innovación en Biomoleculas, Care4You, Barranquilla, Colombia.

Abstract

Glioblastoma (GB), the most aggressive malignant glioma, is made up of a large percentage of glioma-associated microglia/macrophages (GAM), suggesting that immune cells play an important role in the pathophysiology of GB. Under physiological conditions, microglia, the phagocytes of the central nervous system (CNS), are involved in various processes such as neurogenesis or axonal growth, and the progression of different conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. Through immunohistochemical studies, markers that enhance GB invasiveness have been shown to be expressed in the peritumoral area of the brain, such as Transforming Growth Factor α (TGF-α), Stromal Sell-Derived Factor 1 (SDF1/CXCL12), Sphingosine-1-Phosphate (S1P) and Neurotrophic Factor Derived from the Glial cell line (GDNF), contributing to the increase in tumor mass. Similarly, it has also been described 17 biomarkers that are present in hypoxic periarteriolar HSC niches in bone marrow and in hypoxic periarteriolar GSC niches in glioblastoma. Interestingly, microglia plays an important role in the microenvironment that supports GB progression, being one of the most important focal points in the study of therapeutic targets for the development of new drugs. In this review, we describe the altered signaling pathways in microglia in the context of GB. We also show how microglia interact with glioblastoma cells and the epigenetic mechanisms involved. Regarding the interactions between microglia and neurogenic niches, some authors indicate that glioblastoma stem cells (GSC) are similar to neural stem cells (NSC), common stem cells in the subventricular zone (SVZ), suggesting that this could be the origin of GB. Understanding the similarities between SVZ and the tumor microenvironment could be important to clarify some mechanisms involved in GB malignancy and to support the discovering of new therapeutic targets for the development of more effective glioblastoma treatments.

Keywords: epigenetic; glioblastoma; microglia; signaling pathways; therapeutic target.

Publication types

Review