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Updated: May 20, 2026
Evaluation of Biomarkers in Glioma by Immunohistochemistry on Paraffin-Embedded 3D Glioma Neurosphere Cultures
Published on: January 9, 2019
Immunosignaturing can detect products from molecular markers in brain cancer
Alexa K Hughes1, Zbigniew Cichacz, Adrienne Scheck
1Biodesign Institute, Center for Innovations in Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America.
Insights
Immunosignature analysis of blood samples accurately identified brain tumors and distinguished between tumor types and grades. This diagnostic approach holds promise for classifying cancer pathology and predicting treatment response.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Immunology
- Biomarker Discovery
Background:
- Immunosignaturing is a diagnostic approach that detects immunological markers.
- Previous studies demonstrated its ability to detect infections and differentiate Alzheimer's disease from healthy controls.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the efficacy of immunosignaturing in classifying brain tumors based on clinical and pathological features.
- To determine if immunosignatures can differentiate between various brain tumor types, grades, and predict the methylation status of the O(6)-methyl-guanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter.
Main Methods:
- Blood samples were collected from patients with astrocytoma, Glioblastoma multiforme, mixed oligodendroglioma/astrocytoma, oligodendroglioma, and healthy controls prior to adjuvant therapy.
- Samples were analyzed using the immunosignaturing platform.
Main Results:
- The immunosignaturing platform successfully distinguished brain tumors from healthy controls.
- It also differentiated between specific brain tumor types and grades.
- The platform could identify the presence or absence of the MGMT methylation promoter, a key biomarker for Glioblastoma multiforme treatment response.
Conclusions:
- Immunosignaturing is a viable tool for the non-invasive diagnosis and classification of brain tumors.
- This method provides valuable pathological information, including tumor type, grade, and MGMT methylation status, aiding in personalized treatment strategies.
Abstract:
Immunosignaturing shows promise as a general approach to diagnosis. It has been shown to detect immunological signs of infection early during the course of disease and to distinguish Alzheimer's disease from healthy controls. Here we test whether immunosignatures correspond to clinical classifications of disease using samples from people with brain tumors. Blood samples from patients undergoing craniotomies for therapeutically naïve brain tumors with diagnoses of astrocytoma (23 samples), Glioblastoma multiforme (22 samples), mixed oligodendroglioma/astrocytoma (16 samples), oligodendroglioma (18 samples), and 34 otherwise healthy controls were tested by immunosignature. Because samples were taken prior to adjuvant therapy, they are unlikely to be perturbed by non-cancer related affects. The immunosignaturing platform distinguished not only brain cancer from controls, but also pathologically important features about the tumor including type, grade, and the presence or absence of O(6)-methyl-guanine-DNA methyltransferase methylation promoter (MGMT), an important biomarker that predicts response to temozolomide in Glioblastoma multiformae patients.
