Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas.
Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Cancer Res. 2020 Apr 1;80(7):1551-1563. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-19-3183. Epub 2020 Jan 28.
Cytometry by time-of-flight (CyTOF) simultaneously measures multiple cellular proteins at the single-cell level and is used to assess intertumor and intratumor heterogeneity. This approach may be used to investigate the variability of individual tumor responses to treatments. Herein, we stratified lung tumor subpopulations based on AXL signaling as a potential targeting strategy. Integrative transcriptome analyses were used to investigate how TP-0903, an AXL kinase inhibitor, influences redundant oncogenic pathways in metastatic lung cancer cells. CyTOF profiling revealed that AXL inhibition suppressed SMAD4/TGFβ signaling and induced JAK1-STAT3 signaling to compensate for the loss of AXL. Interestingly, high JAK1-STAT3 was associated with increased levels of AXL in treatment-naïve tumors. Tumors with high AXL, TGFβ, and JAK1 signaling concomitantly displayed CD133-mediated cancer stemness and hybrid epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition features in advanced-stage patients, suggesting greater potential for distant dissemination. Diffusion pseudotime analysis revealed cell-fate trajectories among four different categories that were linked to clinicopathologic features for each patient. Patient-derived organoids (PDO) obtained from tumors with high AXL and JAK1 were sensitive to TP-0903 and ruxolitinib (JAK inhibitor) treatments, supporting the CyTOF findings. This study shows that single-cell proteomic profiling of treatment-naïve lung tumors, coupled with testing of PDOs, identifies continuous AXL, TGFβ, and JAK1-STAT3 signal activation in select tumors that may be targeted by combined AXL-JAK1 inhibition. SIGNIFICANCE: Single-cell proteomic profiling of clinical samples may facilitate the optimal selection of novel drug targets, interpretation of early-phase clinical trial data, and development of predictive biomarkers valuable for patient stratification.
基于时间飞行的流式细胞术(CyTOF)能够同时在单细胞水平上测量多种细胞蛋白,用于评估肿瘤间和肿瘤内异质性。这种方法可用于研究个体肿瘤对治疗反应的变异性。在此,我们根据 AXL 信号作为潜在的靶向策略对肺肿瘤亚群进行分层。综合转录组分析用于研究 AXL 激酶抑制剂 TP-0903 如何影响转移性肺癌细胞中冗余的致癌途径。CyTOF 分析显示,AXL 抑制抑制 SMAD4/TGFβ 信号,并诱导 JAK1-STAT3 信号来补偿 AXL 的缺失。有趣的是,高 JAK1-STAT3 与治疗前肿瘤中 AXL 的增加水平相关。具有高 AXL、TGFβ 和 JAK1 信号的肿瘤同时显示出 CD133 介导的癌症干性和晚期患者的混合上皮间质转化特征,提示具有更大的远处播散潜力。扩散伪时间分析揭示了四个不同类别之间的细胞命运轨迹,这些轨迹与每位患者的临床病理特征相关。从 AXL 和 JAK1 高的肿瘤获得的患者来源类器官(PDO)对 TP-0903 和鲁索替尼(JAK 抑制剂)治疗敏感,支持 CyTOF 发现。这项研究表明,未经治疗的肺肿瘤的单细胞蛋白质组学分析,结合 PDO 的检测,可识别出特定肿瘤中持续的 AXL、TGFβ 和 JAK1-STAT3 信号激活,这些肿瘤可能通过联合 AXL-JAK1 抑制来靶向。意义:临床样本的单细胞蛋白质组学分析可能有助于为新的药物靶点选择、早期临床试验数据的解释以及有价值的患者分层预测生物标志物的开发提供最佳选择。