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Review
. 2022 Mar 2:12:852950.
doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.852950. eCollection 2022.

Glioblastoma Microenvironment: From an Inviolable Defense to a Therapeutic Chance

Vincenzo Di Nunno  1 , Enrico Franceschi  2 , Alicia Tosoni  2 , Lidia Gatto  1 , Stefania Bartolini  2 , Alba Ariela Brandes  2
Affiliations
Review

Glioblastoma Microenvironment: From an Inviolable Defense to a Therapeutic Chance

Vincenzo Di Nunno et al. Front Oncol. .

Abstract

Glioblastoma is an aggressive tumor and is associated with a dismal prognosis. The availability of few active treatments as well as the inexorable recurrence after surgery are important hallmarks of the disease. The biological behavior of glioblastoma tumor cells reveals a very complex pattern of genomic alterations and is partially responsible for the clinical aggressiveness of this tumor. It has been observed that glioblastoma cells can recruit, manipulate and use other cells including neurons, glial cells, immune cells, and endothelial/stromal cells. The final result of this process is a very tangled net of interactions promoting glioblastoma growth and progression. Nonetheless, recent data are suggesting that the microenvironment can also be a niche in which glioblastoma cells can differentiate into glial cells losing their tumoral phenotype. Here we summarize the known interactions between micro-environment and glioblastoma cells highlighting possible therapeutic implications.

Keywords: glioblastoma; immune-system; macrophages; microenvironment; neurons.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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