Explicating the Pivotal Pathogenic, Diagnostic, and Therapeutic Biomarker Potentials of Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells in Glioblastoma

Abstract

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a malignant and aggressive central nervous tumor that originates from astrocytes. These pathogenic astrocytes divide rapidly and are sustained by enormous network of blood vessels via which they receive requisite nutrients. It well proven that GBM microenvironment is extremely infiltrated by myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). MDSCs are a heterogeneous cluster of immature myeloid progenitors. They are key mediates in immune suppression as well as sustenance glioma growth, invasion, vascularization, and upsurge of regulatory T cells via different molecules. MDSCs are often elevated in the peripheral blood of patients with GBM. MDSCs in the peripheral blood as well as those infiltrating the GBM microenvironment correlated with poor prognosis. Also, an upsurge in circulating MDSCs in the peripheral blood of patients with GBM was observed compared to benign and grade I/II glioma patients. GBM patients with good prognosis presented with reduced MDSCs as well as augmented dendritic cells. Almost all chemotherapeutic medication for GBM has shown no obvious improvement in overall survival in patients. Nevertheless, low-dose chemotherapies were capable of suppressing the levels of MDSCs in GBM as well as multiple tumor models with metastatic to the brain. Thus, MDSCs are potential diagnostic as well as therapeutic biomarkers for GBM patients.

Figure 1

Diagnostic and therapeutic biomarker potentials of myeloid-derived suppressor cells in glioblastoma. (a) Shows therapeutic biomarker potential of MDSCs after various chemotherapeutic agents as well as surgical outcomes. Facilitation of MDSC secretion leads to bad prognosis while suppression of MDSCs leads to good prognosis. (b) Shows the diagnostic biomarker potentials of MDSCs. MDSCs are elevated in both glioblastoma tumor and the periphery blood indicating bad prognosis.