Glioblastomas acquire myeloid-affiliated transcriptional programs via epigenetic immunoediting to elicit immune evasion.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is an aggressive brain tumor for which current immunotherapy approaches have been unsuccessful. Here, we explore the mechanisms underlying immune evasion in GBM. By serially transplanting GBM stem cells (GSCs) into immunocompetent hosts, we uncover an acquired capability of GSCs to escape immune clearance by establishing an enhanced immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Mechanistically, this is not elicited via genetic selection of tumor subclones, but through an epigenetic immunoediting process wherein stable transcriptional and epigenetic changes in GSCs are enforced following immune attack. These changes launch a myeloid-affiliated transcriptional program, which leads to increased recruitment of tumor-associated macrophages. Furthermore, we identify similar epigenetic and transcriptional signatures in human mesenchymal subtype GSCs. We conclude that epigenetic immunoediting may drive an acquired immune evasion program in the most aggressive mesenchymal GBM subtype by reshaping the tumor immune microenvironment.

Plectin reinforces vascular integrity by mediating crosstalk between the vimentin and the actin networks.

Mutations in the cytoskeletal linker protein plectin result in multisystemic diseases affecting skin and muscle with indications of additional vascular system involvement. To study the mechanisms underlying vascular disorders, we established plectin-deficient endothelial cell and mouse models. We show that apart from perturbing the vimentin cytoskeleton of endothelial cells, plectin deficiency leads to severe distortions of adherens junctions (AJs), as well as tight junctions, accompanied by an upregulation of actin stress fibres and increased cellular contractility. Plectin-deficient endothelial cell layers were more leaky and showed reduced mechanical resilience in fluid-shear stress and mechanical stretch experiments. We suggest that the distorted AJs and upregulated actin stress fibres in plectin-deficient cells are rooted in perturbations of the vimentin cytoskeleton, as similar phenotypes could be mimicked in wild-type cells by disruption of vimentin filaments. In vivo studies in endothelium-restricted conditional plectin-knockout mice revealed significant distortions of AJs in stress-prone aortic arch regions and increased pulmonary vascular leakage. Our study opens a new perspective on cytoskeleton-controlled vascular permeability, where a plectin-organized vimentin scaffold keeps actomyosin contractility 'in-check' and maintains AJ homeostasis.