墨尔本大学Lucy Maree Palmer课题组近日取得一项新成果。经过不懈努力，他们报道了神经兴奋性和胶质瘤突触活动的增加驱动人类皮层胶质瘤的增殖。相关论文于2025年11月26日发表在《自然—神经科学》杂志上。

在这里，该课题组人员对来自低级别或高级别胶质瘤患者的锥体神经元和胶质瘤细胞进行了膜片钳电生理记录。课题组发现，在胶质瘤浸润的皮层内，人类锥体神经元的生物物理特性因肿瘤级别不同而不同，高级别胶质瘤的神经元比低级别胶质瘤的神经元更容易兴奋。此外，高级别肿瘤中的胶质瘤细胞具有更小、更长的突触反应。人类高级别肿瘤组织中神经元-胶质瘤网络活性增加导致胶质瘤增殖增加，提示人类高级别胶质瘤中锥体神经元的高兴奋性可能驱动肿瘤生长。综合起来，他们的发现阐明了高级别和低级别胶质瘤劫持神经网络的差异。

据悉，成人神经胶质瘤是一种无法治愈的原发性脑癌，它会渗透到健康的大脑并合并到神经网络中。胶质瘤可根据组织病理学和分子特征分为低级别和高级别，这大致预测了胶质瘤的侵袭性。

附：英文原文

Title: Increased neural excitability and glioma synaptic activity drives glioma proliferation in human cortex

Author: McAlpine, Heidi, Rosier, Marius, Rozario, Jordan, Wang, Xiaoyu, Wimmer, Verena C., Guzulaitis, Robertas, Guan, Hefei, Hu, Yi, Chirlov, Leonid, Davey, Christian, Finch, Sue, Drummond, Katharine Jann, Palmer, Lucy Maree

Issue&Volume: 2025-11-26

Abstract: Adult gliomas are incurable primary brain cancers that infiltrate healthy brain and incorporate into neural networks. Gliomas can be classified as low grade or high grade based on histopathological and molecular features, which broadly predicts their aggressiveness. Here we performed patch-clamp electrophysiological recordings from pyramidal neurons and glioma cells from individuals with either low- or high-grade glioma. We find that the biophysical properties of human pyramidal neurons within glioma-infiltrated cortex differ according to tumor grade, with neurons from high-grade glioma being more excitable than those from low-grade glioma. Additionally, glioma cells within high-grade tumors have smaller, longer synaptic responses. Increased neuron–glioma network activity within human high-grade tumor tissue leads to increased glioma proliferation, suggesting that the hyperexcitability of pyramidal neurons in human high-grade glioma may drive tumor growth. Combined, our findings illustrate that high- and low-grade glioma differentially hijack neural networks.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-025-02149-0

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-025-02149-0