High Level Immunoglobulin Gene Expression and Reduced Intra-tumoral Bacteria Associated With the Transition from Initial to Progressive Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma

Background/Aim: In the past decade, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), the most common childhood brainstem glioma, has benefitted from an increase in tissue-based research because of improved biopsy collection techniques. However, the adaptive immune receptor (IR) features represented by tumor material and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes have remained poorly understood. Materials and Methods: Herein, we characterized the adaptive immune parameters of DIPG through the recovery of IR recombination reads from RNAseq files representing initial and progressive DIPG samples. Results: An elevated level of immunoglobulin gene expression in the progressive DIPG sample files and a reduced number of bacterial sequencing read recoveries in comparison to RNAseq files representing the initial form of DIPG, was found. Furthermore, the RNAseq files representing both initial and progressive DIPG samples had significant numbers of reads representing Cutibacterium acnes, a bacterium previously linked to prostate cancer development. Results also indicated an opportunity to distinguish overall survival probabilities based on IGL complementarity determining region-3 amino acid sequence physicochemical parameters. Conclusion: Genomics analyses allow for a better understanding of adaptive IR features and bacterial infections in the DIPG setting.