Meningioma immune response

Meningiomas are known to be infiltrated by immune cells including microglia, macrophages, B-cells, and T-cells. Several mechanisms contribute to decreased anti-tumor immune response, allowing tumor growth and evasion of the immune system.

The tumor microenvironment of meningiomas often includes post germinal center B cell populations. These tumors invariably include a selected, antigen-experienced, effector T cell population enriched by those that express markers of an exhausted phenotype.

In a study, Wang et al. used single-cell RNA sequencing to perform the first characterization of both non-tumor-associated human dura and primary meningioma samples. First, they revealed a complex immune microenvironment in human dura that is transcriptionally distinct from that of meningioma. In addition, they characterized a functionally diverse and heterogeneous landscape of non-immune cells including endothelial cells and fibroblasts. Through imaging mass cytometry, they highlighted the spatial relationship among immune cell types and vasculature in non-tumor-associated dura. Utilizing T cell receptor sequencing, they showed significant TCR overlap between matched dura and meningioma samples. Finally, they reported copy number variant heterogeneity within the meningioma samples ¹⁾.