Editorial: Innovative theranostic approaches towards neuro-immunology in gliomas

COPYRIGHT © 2023 Cui, Zhai and Kang. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. TYPE Editorial PUBLISHED 21 February 2023 DOI 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1122299

immunotherapy responses reiterate the extremely complex immune regulatory network involved in the glioma TME. It is of note that findings from these correlation studies, especially conclusions from bioinformatics analyses, still need further experimental validation. More importantly, the roles of these novel biomarkers in glioma tumorigenesis and immunopathology need to be confirmed functionally, and the underlying molecular and biochemical mechanisms remain largely unexplored. Given that antiangiogenic therapy (bevacizumab) remains the top therapeutic option in the SOC treatment for the grimmest type of glioma, recurrent glioblastoma (6), it is timely and important that Lamplugh and Fan presented an elegant review on the impact of the vascular microenvironment on glioma immunity and immunotherapy. The corresponding molecular underpinnings and potentially contributing cellular components were thoroughly discussed with regard to vessel abnormality, microenvironment stress, immunosuppressive niche and adhesion dysfunction. Moreover, perspectives on reprogramming the vascular microenvironment by targeting vessel normalization and endothelial cell genetic engineering provide novel insights into future combination therapies to further improve glioma immunotherapy efficacy. In another closely related topic, Smith et al. provided a systemic review on the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) coreceptor neuropilin-1 (NRP1) in high-grade gliomas. Their review article summarized the fundamental and diverse functionalities of NRP1 in endothelial cell biology, neuronal physiology and T lymphocytes, revealing a potential molecular target for future immune checkpoint blockade therapy in high-grade gliomas. Over the past decades, epigenetic modifications have been revealed to play vital roles in cancer immune modulation (7). A review article from Chen et al. introduced the basic concepts of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation and outlined the involvement of m6A methylation and the corresponding RNA methyltransferases in various cancer types. The immunomodulatory potential of m6A RNA methylation in gliomas was also discussed in a review of a series of correlational studies.
As cell-based therapies are a major part of current glioma immunotherapy, we are glad to include a comprehensive review article from Wang and Wang on the topic of advanced cell therapies for gliomas, which provided a well-organized overview of the latest advancements in chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAT-T), natural killer (NK) cells and CAR-NK cells, gamma delta T cells, natural killer T (NKT) cells, and monocytes/dendritic/ macrophages, as well as stem cell-based therapies. Adding more to this Research Topic, Tang et al. provided an overview of the advances in nanotechnology-based immunotherapy for glioblastoma (GBM), with an emphasis on the application of novel nanoparticle techniques to enhance a variety of glioma immunotherapeutic approaches.
Finally, two review articles focused on noninvasive diagnostic technologies for gliomas. Wadden et al. reviewed the latest advances in cell-free tumor DNA (cf-tDNA) liquid biopsy in gliomas. They summarized the current and future trends of various approaches for cf-tDNA detection and analysis with an emphasis on how to overcome the challenges of low sensitivity encountered in current cf-tDNA detection. Insights were also provided on the applications of cf-tDNA in different aspects of glioma immunotherapy. As the stellar technology for glioma noninvasive diagnosis, radiological imaging is essential for every aspect related to glioma patient care. In this article collection, Zhu et al. presented a comprehensive review on artificial intelligence (machine learning) technology in radiological imagingbased radiomic analysis in GBM. Written in a manner that is very friendly to noncomputer science background readers, this article introduced basic concepts and procedures of AI-assisted radiomic analysis and the associated problems and challenges. It also highlighted current applications of AI technology in various GBM clinical management needs, including differential diagnosis of GBM and classification, OS prediction, biomarker identification, and tumor immune response assessment.
This Research Topic is well balanced with manuscripts featuring a broad range of research interests that converge on the topic of neuro-immunology of gliomas. There are still many critical aspects that have not been covered in this collection and are worth further pursuing in the future, such as pediatric brain tumors, which possess significantly different immune landscapes in comparison to adult gliomas, agingrelated immunosenescence, and key differences between CNS immune systems versus peripheral immune systems with regard to brain tumor immunity.

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