Pediatric low-grade gliomas (pLGGs) are mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway-activated brain tumors prevalent in children and are associated with morbidity despite favorable survival. Here using imaging mass cytometry, we spatially characterized at the single-cell level the tumor microenvironment (TME) of 120 pLGG cases, considering age, molecular drivers, brain location and tumor subtype. Our analysis identified myeloid cells-including resident microglia and bone marrow-derived macrophages-as the predominant immune population in the TME, particularly in optic pathway tumors. Additionally, we discovered an immune signature predictive of progression-free survival. Spatial analysis identified specific cellular interactions, notably myeloid-myeloid contacts and macrophage-enriched regions harboring MAPK-activated, TIM-3+ myeloid cells, suggesting an immunosuppressive TME. Our study provides a comprehensive resource on the immune landscape of these pLGGs and underscores the immunosuppressive role of diverse myeloid infiltrates. These findings also indicate that combining TIM-3 blockade with MAPK inhibition might be a promising therapeutic strategy to target both the TME and oncogenic MAPK activation in pLGG tumors.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 35. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 23 October 2025.
All research outputs
#1,402,581
of 32,492,496 outputs
Outputs from Nature Immunology
#937
of 4,914 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#13,800
of 337,201 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature Immunology
#16
of 85 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 32,492,496 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 95th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,914 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 35.2. This one has done well, scoring higher than 80% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 337,201 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 85 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 81% of its contemporaries.
