- Raviram, Ramya;
- Raman, Anugraha;
- Preissl, Sebastian;
- Ning, Jiangfang;
- Wu, Shaoping;
- Koga, Tomoyuki;
- Zhang, Kai;
- Brennan, Cameron W;
- Zhu, Chenxu;
- Luebeck, Jens;
- Van Deynze, Kinsey;
- Han, Jee Yun;
- Hou, Xiaomeng;
- Ye, Zhen;
- Mischel, Anna K;
- Li, Yang Eric;
- Fang, Rongxin;
- Baback, Tomas;
- Mugford, Joshua;
- Han, Claudia Z;
- Glass, Christopher K;
- Barr, Cathy L;
- Mischel, Paul S;
- Bafna, Vineet;
- Escoubet, Laure;
- Ren, Bing;
- Chen, Clark C
In 2021, the World Health Organization reclassified glioblastoma, the most common form of adult brain cancer, into isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)-wild-type glioblastomas and grade IV IDH mutant (G4 IDHm) astrocytomas. For both tumor types, intratumoral heterogeneity is a key contributor to therapeutic failure. To better define this heterogeneity, genome-wide chromatin accessibility and transcription profiles of clinical samples of glioblastomas and G4 IDHm astrocytomas were analyzed at single-cell resolution. These profiles afforded resolution of intratumoral genetic heterogeneity, including delineation of cell-to-cell variations in distinct cell states, focal gene amplifications, as well as extrachromosomal circular DNAs. Despite differences in IDH mutation status and significant intratumoral heterogeneity, the profiled tumor cells shared a common chromatin structure defined by open regions enriched for nuclear factor 1 transcription factors (NFIA and NFIB). Silencing of NFIA or NFIB suppressed in vitro and in vivo growths of patient-derived glioblastomas and G4 IDHm astrocytoma models. These findings suggest that despite distinct genotypes and cell states, glioblastoma/G4 astrocytoma cells share dependency on core transcriptional programs, yielding an attractive platform for addressing therapeutic challenges associated with intratumoral heterogeneity.