Jessica Waibl Polania

Jan 14, 2025 | sciencedirect.com | M.B. El Mdawar |Jessica Waibl Polania |Peter E. Fecci |Deguan Lv

Glioblastoma, the most common primary tumor of the central nervous system (CNS), remain uniformly aggressive and lethal, with a median survival of less than 2 years.1,2,3,4 Glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) possess the fundamental stem cell properties including self-renewal, multi-potency, and tumor maintenance, and they share other characteristics with normal neural stem cells (NSCs).5,6 Although they comprise a small fraction of total tumor cells, GSCs have been demonstrated to promote tumor...

Jan 14, 2025 | sciencedirect.com | Wenbin Mei |Sohail F. Tavazoie |Jessica Waibl Polania |Peter E. Fecci

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapies have improved the outcome of patients with malignant tumors. However, most cancer patients barely benefit from ICB treatments.1 Deciphering mechanisms for ICB resistance, especially cancer cell-intrinsic factors mediating immune escape, will improve ICB efficacy.

Dec 25, 2024 | cell.com | Jessica Waibl Polania |Alexandra M Hoyt-Miggelbrink |William H. Tomaszewski |Lucas P Wachsmuth |Selena J. Lorrey |Daniel Wilkinson | +5 more

Keywords T cell exhaustion tumor-associated macrophage tumor microenvironment tumor immunology immunotherapy brain tumor brain metastasis glioblastoma Introduction Brain tumors, both primary and metastatic, continue to herald poor survival.1,2 Immunotherapies, such as immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, hold promise for improving outcomes but remain only marginally effective within the intracranial confines.3,4 This has been especially true in the...

Nov 25, 2024 | biorxiv.org | Jessica Waibl Polania |Alexandra M Hoyt-Miggelbrink |William H. Tomaszewski |Lucas P Wachsmuth

AbstractWhereas terminally exhausted T (Tex_term) cells retain anti-tumor cytotoxic functions, the frequencies of stem-like progenitor exhausted T (Tex_prog) cells better reflect immunotherapeutic responsivity. Here, we examined the intratumoral cellular interactions that govern the transition to terminal T cell exhaustion. We defined a metric reflecting the intratumoral progenitor exhaustion-to-terminal exhaustion ratio (PETER), which decreased with tumor progression in solid cancers.

Nov 5, 2023 | biorxiv.org | Selena J. Lorrey |Lucas P Wachsmuth |John Finlay |Jessica Waibl Polania

AbstractIntracranial tumors present unique challenges for immunotherapy, which can include both local and systemic immune suppression whose mechanistic underpinnings are incompletely understood. Here, we reveal that tumors harbored intracranially elicit systemic increases in catecholamines and chronic sympathetic hyperactivity that drives T cell dysfunction and limits immunotherapeutic success.