Early glioma is associated with abnormal electrical events in cortical cultures

The prodromal stages of some neurological diseases have a distinct electrical profile which can potentially be leveraged for early diagnosis, predicting disease recurrence, monitoring of disease progression, and better understanding of the disease pathology. Gliomas are tumors that originate from glial cells present in the brain and spinal cord. Healthy glial cells support normal neuronal function and play an important role in modulating the regular electrical activity of neurons. However, gliomas can disrupt the normal electrical dynamics of the brain. Though experimental and clinical studies suggest that glioma and injury to glial cells disrupt electrical dynamics of the brain, whether these disruptions are present during the earliest stages of glioma and glial injury are unclear. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the effect of early in vitro glial pathology (glioma and glial injury in specific) on neuronal electrical activity. In particular, we investigated the effect of glial pathology on neural synchronization: an important phenomenon that underlies several central neurophysiological processes (ScienceDirect, 2018 ). We used two in vitro disease samples: (a) a sample in which cortical cultures were treated with anti-mitotic agents that deplete glial cells and (b) a glioma sample in which healthy cortical cells were cultured with CRL-2303 (an aggressive glioma cell line). Healthy cortical culture samples were used as controls. Cultures were established over a glass dish embedded with microelectrodes that permits simultaneous measurement of extracellular electrical activity from multiple sites of the culture. We observed that healthy cortical cultures produce spontaneous and synchronized oscillations which were attenuated in the absence of glial cells. The presence of glioma was associated with the emergence of two types of "abnormal electrical activity" each with distinct amplitude and frequency profile. Our results indicate that even early stages of glioma and glial injury are associated with distinct changes in neuronal electrical activity. Graphical abstract.