New Podcast Episode. Cancer Neuroscience, Tumor Organoids, and Understanding the Role of the Nervous System in Human Glioblastoma

The role of neuronal influences on cancer pathogenesis and progression is increasingly appreciated in the nervous system. Neurons have been shown to enhance the proliferation and migration of gliomas, a glial-derived tumor of the CNS, via diffusible paracrine factors or synaptic inputs onto tumor cells. In glioblastomas, a highly aggressive glioma, mostly glutamatergic inputs have been identified. While the potential for glioblastomas to receive projections from neurons of other neurotransmitter subtypes, such as from cholinergic neurons, has recently been discovered in xenotransplantation models, whether synapses can form between human cholinergic neurons and glioblastoma cells and consequences of these inputs and other non-synaptic mechanisms are still unknown.  

Human induced pluripotent stem cell-based models have been emerging as a powerful platform for studying human-specific disease mechanisms. Today’s guests developed a co-culture model for the study of neuron-tumor interactions by combining patient derived glioblastoma organoids and hiPSC-derived cholinergic neurons. They will discuss their recent findings and what it means for understanding and potentially treating a tumor for which there is no known cure. 

Guests

• Guo-li Ming, MD, PhD, Department of Neuroscience and Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, USA

• Hongjun Song, PhD, Department of Neuroscience and Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, USA

• Yusha Sun, Neuroscience Graduate Group, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, USA

Supporting Content
Paper link: Cholinergic neuron-to-glioblastoma synapses in a human iPSC-derived co-culture model, Stem Cell Reports