Developmental Origins and Immune Landscape of Pediatric Brain Tumors

Pediatric brain tumors arise during critical periods of neural development and are increasingly recognized as biologically distinct from adult central nervous system (CNS) malignancies. Integrative genomic, transcriptomic, and epigenomic studies have shown that many pediatric brain tumors retain developmental programs reflective of their cells of origin. These programs influence tumor behavior, molecular heterogeneity, and clinical course, and are now understood to play a role in shaping the tumor immune landscape. Compared with adult tumors, pediatric brain tumors often display distinct patterns of antigen presentation, immune cell infiltration, and immune evasion. Understanding how developmental context intersects with tumor–immune interactions is therefore central to advancing biologically informed therapeutic strategies in pediatric neuro-oncology.Despite major advances in molecular classification of pediatric brain tumors, immune-based therapies have shown variable and often limited efficacy in this population. One key challenge lies in the incomplete understanding of how developmental cell states and lineage-specific programs influence immune recognition, immune suppression, and treatment response. Recent advances in single-cell profiling, spatial biology, and integrative multi-omics have begun to reveal how developmental trajectories shape tumor–immune interactions and therapeutic vulnerability. The goal of this Research Topic is to address this gap by bringing together studies that link developmental origins of pediatric brain tumors with their immune phenotypes and clinical behavior. By integrating developmental biology with tumor immunology, this Research Topic aims to inform improved biological stratification, provide insight into mechanisms of treatment resistance, and support the rational design of immune-based therapies tailored to pediatric brain tumor subtypes. Ultimately, this work seeks to advance translational frameworks that can guide patient selection and therapeutic decision-making in neuro-oncology.This Research Topic welcomes contributions spanning basic, translational, and clinical research that explore immune biology through the lens of developmental origin in pediatric brain tumors. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, developmental lineage and cell-of-origin effects on the tumor immune microenvironment, neoantigen and antigen presentation landscapes, epigenetic regulation of immune evasion, immune heterogeneity across molecular subgroups, and immunotherapeutic strategies informed by developmental context. Studies addressing therapeutic resistance, patient stratification, or clinical relevance in pediatric neuro-oncology are particularly encouraged. The Research Topic welcomes Original Research, Reviews, Mini-Reviews, and Clinical Studies. Submissions should provide biological or clinical validation where appropriate.Please note: Manuscripts based solely on bioinformatics or computational analyses of public datasets, without independent clinical cohorts or biological validation in vitro or in vivo, are not suitable for publication. Topic editors: David Bakhshinyan, Gabriele Kembuan Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/74306/developmental-origins-and-immune-landscape-of-pediatric-brain-tumors