Preferential Expression of B7-H6 in Glioma Stem-Like Cells Enhances Tumor Cell Proliferation via the c-MycRNMT Axis

Abstract EN

B7 homologue 6 (B7-H6), a newly identified member of the B7 costimulatory molecule family, is not only a crucial regulator of NK cell-mediated immune responses through binding to NKp30 but also has clinical implications due to its abnormal expression in human cancers.

Here, we show that B7-H6 expression is abnormally upregulated in glioma tissue and that B7-H6 is coexpressed with stem cell marker Sox2.

Intriguingly, B7-H6 was rarely detected on the surface of glioma cell lines but was abundantly expressed in glioma stem-like cells (GSLCs) that were derived from the glioma cell lines in vitro.

Surprisingly, B7-H6 was the only one that was preferentially expressed in the GSLCs among the B7 family members.

Functionally, knockdown of B7-H6 in GSLCs by siRNAs led to the inhibition of cell proliferation, with decrease in the expression of the oncogene Myc as well as inactivation of PI3K/Akt and ERK/MAPK signaling pathways.

Moreover, we determined that three genes CBL (Casitas B-Lineage Lymphoma Proto-Oncogene), CCNT1 (Cyclin T1), and RNMT (RNA guanine-7 methyltransferase) were coexpressed with B7-H6 and c-myc in glioma tissue samples from the TCGA database and found, however that only RNMT expression was inhibited by the knockdown of B7-H6 expression in the GSLCs, suggesting the involvement of RNMT in the B7-H6/c-myc axis.

Extending this to 293T cells, we observed that knocking out of B7-H6 with CRISPR-Cas9 system also suppressed cell proliferation.

Thus, our findings suggest B7-H6 as a potential molecule for glioma stem cell targeted immunotherapy.