We found that the loss of neuronal activity-regulated BDNF expression and secretion exerts a survival advantage in Bdnf-TMKI mice bearing patient-derived DIPG xenografts in the brainstem (Fig. 1e and Extended Data Fig. 1e), concordant with the hypothesis that activity-regulated BDNF signalling robustly influences glioma progression in the context of the brain microenvironment. Here, BDNF is linked to glioma.