This article explores the emerging field of cancer neuroscience, specifically focusing on the reciprocal interactions between the nervous system and brain cancers like gliomas and metastases. The central theme is that neuronal activity robustly drives the initiation, growth, invasion, and treatment resistance of brain cancers, often by hijacking normal mechanisms of neural development and plasticity. This occurs through several mechanisms, including neuronal-activity-regulated paracrine signaling involving factors like neuroligin-3 and direct electrochemical communication via neuron-to-glioma synapses (e.g., glutamatergic, GABAergic, and cholinergic). Furthermore, the source details how gliomas, in turn, remodel neural circuits to increase excitability and connectivity, contributing to neurological impairments and reinforcing a pathogenic cycle that drives tumor progression, suggesting that disrupting these neuron-cancer interactions offers a critical new avenue for therapeutic intervention.
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