• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, October 3, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

Houston Methodist researchers identify an immunotherapy target to combat glioblastomas

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
April 5, 2022
in Biology
Reading Time: 5 mins read
0
S100A4 protein may be immunotherapy target for glioblastomas
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

HOUSTON-(April 5, 2022) – Houston Methodist researchers have identified the genetic and molecular fingerprints of different cancer and immune cells in glioblastoma, the deadliest and most common type of brain cancer in adults.

S100A4 protein may be immunotherapy target for glioblastomas

Credit: Houston Methodist

HOUSTON-(April 5, 2022) – Houston Methodist researchers have identified the genetic and molecular fingerprints of different cancer and immune cells in glioblastoma, the deadliest and most common type of brain cancer in adults.

Their in-depth molecular analysis of over 200,000 single cells revealed a protein, called S100A4, that could be a potential therapeutic target for restoring antitumor action of immune cells toward glioblastomas that have otherwise tricked the immune system into protecting it.

The study, titled “Single-cell analysis of human glioma and immune cells identifies S100A4 as an immunotherapy target,” was recently published in Nature Communications, and advances the search for targeted therapies for heterogeneous tumors, which contain different types of tumor and normal cells mixed within a single mass. These heterogeneous cancers are notoriously difficult to manage, because treatments that work against one group of tumor cells may be completely ineffective in others.

Around 48% of all primary malignant brain tumors are glioblastomas, and more than 10,000 people in the United States will succumb to the disease each year. The highly invasive brain cancer cells infiltrate the brain extensively, making surgical resection a very big challenge. Adding to the complexity of the disease is this cancer’s ability to rapidly mutate, so even in different locations in the brain of the same patient, glioblastoma encompasses a mosaic of cancer cell types, posing a major setback for targeted therapies.

As in the case with most diseases affecting the brain, the blood-brain barrier poses another challenge for drug delivery. In glioblastoma, the blood-brain barrier is weakened, allowing immune cells from the periphery to permeate the central nervous system. Mysteriously, however, glioblastomas tend to selectively attract or turn most immune cells that infiltrate the tumor to immune suppressive cells and promote their malignancy.

“A lot of immunotherapies currently target the reactivation of effector T cells, which are important to attack and eliminate cancer cells, but in glioblastoma, the effector T cell infiltration is, in fact, very low,” said Kyuson Yun, Ph.D., senior author on the study with the Houston Methodist Research Institute and associate professor of neurology at the Houston Methodist Academic Institute. “Instead, there is an overabundance of immunosuppressive myeloid cells in glioblastomas.”

To investigate the complex immune-cancer cell interactions, the researchers conducted comprehensive genetic profiling of different cell types in 44 samples of glioblastoma from 18 patients. For each patient, they analyzed glioblastoma tissue from different parts of the brain tumor to gain insights into the cancer’s heterogeneity within each patient. Then, they performed high throughput single-cell RNA sequencing to catalog individual cells based on their gene expression of different molecules.

Upon grouping the cells based on their molecular profiles, the researchers found that glioblastoma cells within and across patients could be categorized into nine groups based on their cellular state independent of the specific mutations in individual cells. They further identified nine subtypes of myeloid cells in glioblastoma, including the brain’s primary immune cells, the microglia, that are associated with better patient outcomes. The tumors were also filled with bone marrow-derived macrophages and regulatory T cells (Tregs) that are immunosuppressive and are linked with worse patient outcomes.

Hence, the researchers turned their attention to identifying a molecule activated in immune suppressive Tregs and myeloid cells. Their strategy was to spare “good” immune cells that are associated with better survival and selectively target “bad” immune cells that promote tumor growth and immune evasion. They discovered that the S100A4 regulator protein is produced and secreted by glioblastoma cancer cells, immunosuppressive T cells and bone marrow-derived myeloid cells.

Yun said her team plans to develop antibody drugs to target this S100A4 protein so that the glioblastoma’s tight grip on regulatory T cells and bone marrow-derived macrophages can be loosened. In addition, they plan to develop small molecules that can enter the nucleus of cancer cells and inhibit the function of the S100A4 protein in glioblastoma stem cells.

“Right now, therapies take a sledgehammer approach since there has been a lack of understanding about which myeloid cell types promote glioblastoma growth and which ones inhibit it,” Yun said. “Single-cell sequencing allowed us to define the heterogeneous myeloid cell types and identify the molecular characteristics of immune cells that promote or suppress tumor growth and consequently allowed us to selectively manipulate immune suppressive cells to restore the tumor-flighting action of the immune system.”

She added that in the next few years single-cell datasets such as those in this study will dramatically change the understanding of human cancer and guide efforts toward the development of new generations of anti-cancer drugs, particularly for immunotherapies.

Yun’s collaborators on this study were Nourhan Abdelfattah, Parveen Kumar, Caiyi Wang, Jia-Shiun Leu, William F. Flynn, Ruli Gao, David S. Baskin, Kumar Pichumani, Omkar B. Ijare, Stephanie L. Wood, Suzanne Z. Powell, David L. Haviland, Brittany C. Parker Kerrigan, Frederick F. Lang, Sujit S. Prabhu, Kristin M. Huntoon, Wen Jiang, Betty Y. S. Kim and Joshy George.

This study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (1R01NS121405), Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (RP180882), Department of Defense (W81XWH-14-1-0115), the Houston Methodist Foundation, the Donaldson Charitable Foundation, The Peak Foundation, the Department of Defense Horizon Award (CA191052), The University of Texas MD Anderson Moon Shots ProgramTM, the National Cancer Institute (P50CA127001), The Broach Foundation for Brain Cancer Research and The Elias Family Fund.

———————–

For more information: Single-cell analysis of human glioma and immune cells identifies S100A4 as an immunotherapy target. Nature Communications. (Feb. 9, 2022) Nourhan Abdelfattah, Parveen Kumar, Caiyi Wang, Jia-Shiun Leu, William F. Flynn, Ruli Gao, David S. Baskin, Kumar Pichumani, Omkar B. Ijare, Stephanie L. Wood, Suzanne Z. Powell, David L. Haviland, Brittany C. Parker Kerrigan, Frederick F. Lang, Sujit S. Prabhu, Kristin M. Huntoon, Wen Jiang, Betty Y. S. Kim, Joshy George and Kyuson Yun. DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28372-y

###



Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-28372-y

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Cells

Article Title

Single-cell analysis of human glioma and immune cells identifies S100A4 as an immunotherapy target

Article Publication Date

9-Feb-2022

COI Statement

Kyuson Yun is a co-founder of EMPIRI, Inc. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Conserved Small Sequences Revealed by Yeast Ribo-seq

Conserved Small Sequences Revealed by Yeast Ribo-seq

October 3, 2025
Atlas Reveals Testicular Aging Across Species

Atlas Reveals Testicular Aging Across Species

October 2, 2025

Stem Cell Reports Announces New Additions to Its Editorial Board

October 2, 2025

New Insights on Bluetongue Virus in South Asia

October 2, 2025

POPULAR NEWS

  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    92 shares
    Share 37 Tweet 23
  • New Study Indicates Children’s Risk of Long COVID Could Double Following a Second Infection – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

    84 shares
    Share 34 Tweet 21
  • Physicists Develop Visible Time Crystal for the First Time

    74 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19
  • How Donor Human Milk Storage Impacts Gut Health in Preemies

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Experts Warn: Whooping Cough Poses Fatal Risk for Young Infants

Moulage Simulation Enhances Nursing Students’ Violence Recognition

Survey Reveals Interest in Alternative Cancer Prevention Methods

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Success! An email was just sent to confirm your subscription. Please find the email now and click 'Confirm' to start subscribing.

Join 60 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.