Intrinsic Interferon Signaling Regulates the Cell Death and Mesenchymal Phenotype of Glioblastoma Stem Cells
Sabbir Khan, Rajasekaran Mahalingam, Shayak Sen, Emmanuel Martínez-Ledesma, Arshad Khan, K. Alexa Orr Gandy, Frederick F. Lang, Erik P. Sulman, Kristin Alfaro-Munoz, Nazanin Majd, Veerakumar Balasubramaniyan, John de Groot
Abstract
Interferon (IFN) signaling contributes to stemness, cell proliferation, cell death, and cytokine signaling in cancer and immune cells; however, the role of IFN signaling in glioblastoma (GBM) and GBM stem-like cells (GSCs) is unclear. Here, we investigated the role of cancer-cell-intrinsic IFN signaling in tumorigenesis in GBM. We report here that GSCs and GBM tumors exhibited differential cell-intrinsic type I and type II IFN signaling, and high IFN/STAT1 signaling was associated with mesenchymal phenotype and poor survival outcomes. In addition, chronic inhibition of IFN/STAT1 signaling decreased cell proliferation and mesenchymal signatures in GSCs with intrinsically high IFN/STAT1 signaling. IFN-β exposure induced apoptosis in GSCs with intrinsically high IFN/STAT1 signaling, and this effect was abolished by the pharmacological inhibitor ruxolitinib and STAT1 knockdown. We provide evidence for targeting IFN signaling in a specific sub-group of GBM patients. IFN-β may be a promising candidate for adjuvant GBM therapy.