- Muthukrishnan, Sree Deepthi;
- Kawaguchi, Riki;
- Nair, Pooja;
- Prasad, Rachna;
- Qin, Yue;
- Johnson, Maverick;
- Wang, Qing;
- VanderVeer-Harris, Nathan;
- Pham, Amy;
- Alvarado, Alvaro G;
- Condro, Michael C;
- Gao, Fuying;
- Gau, Raymond;
- Castro, Maria G;
- Lowenstein, Pedro R;
- Deb, Arjun;
- Hinman, Jason D;
- Pajonk, Frank;
- Burns, Terry C;
- Goldman, Steven A;
- Geschwind, Daniel H;
- Kornblum, Harley I
Glioma stem cells (GSC) exhibit plasticity in response to environmental and therapeutic stress leading to tumor recurrence, but the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. Here, we employ single-cell and whole transcriptomic analyses to uncover that radiation induces a dynamic shift in functional states of glioma cells allowing for acquisition of vascular endothelial-like and pericyte-like cell phenotypes. These vascular-like cells provide trophic support to promote proliferation of tumor cells, and their selective depletion results in reduced tumor growth post-treatment in vivo. Mechanistically, the acquisition of vascular-like phenotype is driven by increased chromatin accessibility and H3K27 acetylation in specific vascular genes allowing for their increased expression post-treatment. Blocking P300 histone acetyltransferase activity reverses the epigenetic changes induced by radiation and inhibits the adaptive conversion of GSC into vascular-like cells and tumor growth. Our findings highlight a role for P300 in radiation-induced stress response, suggesting a therapeutic approach to prevent glioma recurrence.