Glioblastoma Subtypes Exhibit Distinct Migration Mechanics and Immune Responses

Glioblastoma (GBM) remains a deadly cancer driven in part by invasion of tumor cells into the brain. Transcriptomic analyses have identified distinct molecular subtypes, but mechanistic differences that account for clinical differences are not clear. In this study, we show that, as predicted by the motor-clutch model of cell migration, mesenchymal glioma cells are more spread, generate larger traction forces, and migrate faster in brain tissue compared with proneural cells. Despite their rapid migration and comparable proliferation rates in vitro, mice with mesenchymal tumors survive longer than those with proneural tumors. This improved survival correlated with an immune response in mesenchymal tumors, including T cell-mediated. Consistently, inducing mesenchymal tumors in immunodeficient mice resulted in shorter survival, supporting a protective immune role in mesenchymal tumors. Thus, mesenchymal tumors have aggressive migration but are immunologically "hot," which suppresses net proliferation. These two features counteract each other and may explain the lack of a strong survival difference between subtypes clinically, while also opening up new opportunities for subtype-specific therapies.

This study highlights new mechanical and immunologic insights into GBM molecular subtypes using an integrated modeling-genome engineering strategy, which can potentially facilitate GBM subtype-specific therapeutic strategies.