Researchers have discovered a surprising new cell type in the human brain that may be linked with how patients are likely to fare with a certain kind of brain tumor, according to a report in Cancer Cell.
The cells, found in brain tumors called gliomas and healthy brain tissue, fire electrical impulses called action potentials, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston found.
The discovery supports “the groundbreaking idea that neurons are not the only cells that can generate electric signals in the brain,” they said in a statement.
“We have known for some time now that tumor cells and neurons interact directly,” study co-author Dr. Rachel Curry said. “But one question that always lingered in my mind was, ‘Are cancer cells electrically active?’"
Studying human brain cells obtained from patients undergoing brain surgery, the researchers found the newly identified cells are hybrids, with features of neurons and of glial cells, which hold neurons in place and help them function. Gliomas are tumors of glial tissue.
“We had never seen anything like this in the mammalian brain before,” coauthor Dr. Qianqian Ma said in a statement.
Much more work is needed to determine the role of these hybrid cells in the brain, but the findings suggest that the proportion of them in gliomas may have a prognostic value.
“The data shows that the more of these spiking hybrid glioma cells a patient has, the better the survival outcome,” coauthor Dr. Ganesh Rao said in a statement. “This information is of great value to patients and their doctors.”