Insight

Johanna Joyce: We found that neutrophils are especially abundant in aggressive brain cancers – so what are they doing there?

Photo taken Johanna Joyce/LinkedIn

Sep 29, 2023, 19:12

Johanna Joyce: We found that neutrophils are especially abundant in aggressive brain cancers – so what are they doing there?

In a post by Johanna Joyce, Professor at University of Lausanne, on LinkedIn, it says:

“Delighted to share our new study “The local microenvironment drives activation of neutrophils in human brain tumors” just published in Cell!!

We found that neutrophils are especially abundant in aggressive brain cancers – so what are they doing there?

We interrogated patient brain metastases and gliomas, along w/ mouse models, to answer this question.

We revealed prolonged neutrophil survival following entry into the brain TME

The resulting tumor-associated neutrophils – TANs – are then exposed to a milieu of secreted inflammatory mediators within perivascular and myeloid niches within the brain TME, including TNF-a and ceruloplasmin

Consequently, TANs become immunosuppressive and pro-angiogenic. Myeloid cells emerge at the core of this network – supporting the concept of a critical myeloid niche regulating immune suppression in brain tumors
There are MANY interesting questions re. mechanisms of immunosuppression – which we’re now exploring through our SNFAdG from the Swiss National Science Foundation!

This tour de force study was led by Roeltje Maas, an amazing MD-PhD student in my lab. This project started six years ago when Roeltje and Klara Soukup, a former postdoc, joined our group to lead this exciting new research direction for us. Over the years, many other wonderful lab members and critical collaborators joined us to explore the complexity of neutrophils in cancer together.

My heartfelt thanks and warm congratulations again to all authors in my lab – Roeltje, Klara, Matteo Massara, Sabine Galland, Mara Kornete, Vladimir Wischnewski, Davide Croci, Angel Alvarez-Prado, Damien Marie, Johanna Lilja, Rui Santalla Mendez, Pauline Aubel and Leire Bejarano for this incredible teamwork!

There were also several key collaborations that were critical for the success of this research:

Nadine Fournier and all her incredible team at the Translational Data Science Facility at SIB, Agora Lausanne – including Joao Lourenco, Rachel Marcone, and Asa Wirapati

Huge appreciation to our long-term, dedicated clinical partners at CHUV Lausanne Profs Monika Hegi, Andreas Hottinger, Roy Daniel, and Jean-Philippe Brouland

And great collaborators, Andres Hidalgo, Ivan Ballesteros, and Gabriel Calvo for their powerful mouse models and mathematical insights to analyse neutrophils in vivo

Many thanks to all of the foundations and organisations who supported this massive study over the years – including the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of Lausanne, Swiss National Science Foundation Advanced Grant TMAG-3_209224, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Carigest Foundation, Fondation ISREC, Swiss Bridge Award

Finally, our immense gratitude to the patients who selflessly provided precious samples and all healthy donors .”

Johanna Joyce: We found that neutrophils are especially abundant in aggressive brain cancers - so what are they doing there?