IMR Press / FBL / Volume 22 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.2741/4486

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Review

Microglia-glioma cross-talk: a two way approach to new strategies against glioma

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1 Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Perugia, Polo Unico Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, Piazzale Gambuli, 06132 Perugia, Italy
2 Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia, Via Elce di Sotto 8, 06123 Perugia, Italy
3 Department of Pharmaceutical Science, University of Perugia, Via Fabretti 48, 06123 Perugia, Italy
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2017, 22(2), 268–309; https://doi.org/10.2741/4486
Published: 1 January 2017
Abstract

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most malignant and aggressive among primary brain tumors, characterized by very low life expectancy. In vivo, glioma and glioblastoma in particular contain large numbers of immune cells (myeloid cells) such as microglia and tumour-infiltrating macrophages (or glioma associated macrophages). These glioma-infiltrating myeloid cells comprise up to 30% of total tumor mass and have been suggested to play several roles in glioma progression including proliferation, survival, motility and immunosuppression. Although tumor microglia and macrophages can acquire proinflammatory (M1) phenotype being capable of releasing proinflammatory cytokines, phagocytosing and presenting antigens, their effector immune function in gliomas appears to be suppressed by the acquisition of an anti-inflammatory (M2) phenotype. In the present work we review the microglia-glioma interactions to highlight the close relationship between the two cell types and the factors that can influence their properties (chemokines, cytokines, S100B protein). A future therapeutic possibility might be to simultaneously targeting, for example with nanomedicine, glioma cells and microglia to push the microglia towards an antitumor phenotype (M1) and/or prevent glioma cells from “conditioning” by microglia.

Keywords
Glioma
Microglia
GAM
Cancer Stem Cells
Tumor Niche
Review
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