Cellular senescence in malignant cells promotes tumorigenesis in mouse and patient glioblastoma [10X scRNA-seq]

The goal of this study is to identify the senescent cells expressing high level of p16Ink4a (p16Ink4a Hi) in GBMs, at an early timepoint. We introduced the p16-3MR transgene in the GBM mouse model to selectively delete p16Ink4a Hi senescent cells upon ganciclovir (GCV) injection. We compared two p16-3MR+GCV to two WT+GCV control GBMs that were harvested 7 days after the last GCV injection. p16Ink4a Hi senescent cells were a subset of malignant cells, mostly grouped in the astrocyte cluster and to a lesser extend in the NP-like cluster. We also found that p16Ink4a Hi senescent cells deletion modifies the cell state of malignant cells and modulates the tumor microenvironment. This study allowed us to define a GBM senescence signature. scRNAseq of two WT+GCV vs two p16-3MR+GCV mouse GBMs at early timepoint