Vrunda Trivedi

Abstract The nervous and immune systems are intricately linked to one another through bi-directional crosstalk. Given the limited therapeutic options for aggressive and refractory central nervous system (CNS) tumours, immunotherapies are increasingly being explored as potential treatments for these malignancies. In this Review, we provide an overview of the nervous system–immune system connections that provide the basis for the use of immunotherapy to treat CNS tumours.

Keywords diffuse midline glioma DMG glioma neuron OPC oligodendrogenesis oligodendrocyte neuronal activity neuron-glioma LDT laterodorsal tegmentum nucleus PPN pedunculopontine nucleus cholinergic neuron Introduction The activity of the nervous system has emerged as a crucial driver of cancers (for reviews, please see Monje et al.,1 Mancusi and Monje,2 and Winkler et al.3), and powerfully drives the initiation,4,5 and growth6,7,8,9,10 of primary brain cancers called gliomas.

We obtained patients’ RNA-seq data (n = 170; 18 WNT, 46 SHH, 41 Group 3, and 65 Group 4) (Additional file 1: Table S1) deposited at the EGA under accession number EGAS00001001953 (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ega/) and associated mutational events with high biological significance from the ICGC Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Dec. 2020 release [12, 36]. The patient demographic data is available in the supporting material for reference (Additional file 1: Table S1).