CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China.
Protein Cell. 2023 Jun 28;14(7):513-531. doi: 10.1093/procel/pwac045.
As an important part of tumor microenvironment, neutrophils are poorly understood due to their spatiotemporal heterogeneity in tumorigenesis. Here we defined, at single-cell resolution, CD44-CXCR2- neutrophils as tumor-specific neutrophils (tsNeus) in both mouse and human gastric cancer (GC). We uncovered a Hippo regulon in neutrophils with unique YAP signature genes (e.g., ICAM1, CD14, EGR1) distinct from those identified in epithelial and/or cancer cells. Importantly, knockout of YAP/TAZ in neutrophils impaired their differentiation into CD54+ tsNeus and reduced their antitumor activity, leading to accelerated GC progression. Moreover, the relative amounts of CD54+ tsNeus were found to be negatively associated with GC progression and positively associated with patient survival. Interestingly, GC patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy had increased numbers of CD54+ tsNeus. Furthermore, pharmacologically enhancing YAP activity selectively activated neutrophils to suppress refractory GC, with no significant inflammation-related side effects. Thus, our work characterized tumor-specific neutrophils in GC and revealed an essential role of YAP/TAZ-CD54 axis in tsNeus, opening a new possibility to develop neutrophil-based antitumor therapeutics.
作为肿瘤微环境的重要组成部分,由于其在肿瘤发生中的时空异质性,中性粒细胞的研究还不够深入。在这里,我们在单细胞分辨率水平上,定义了 CD44-CXCR2- 中性粒细胞为小鼠和人胃癌(GC)中肿瘤特异性中性粒细胞(tsNeus)。我们在中性粒细胞中发现了 Hippo 调控因子,其具有独特的 YAP 特征基因(例如,ICAM1、CD14、EGR1),与上皮细胞和/或癌细胞中鉴定的基因不同。重要的是,中性粒细胞中 YAP/TAZ 的缺失会损害其分化为 CD54+tsNeus 的能力,并降低其抗肿瘤活性,导致 GC 进展加速。此外,CD54+tsNeus 的相对数量与 GC 进展呈负相关,与患者生存呈正相关。有趣的是,接受新辅助化疗的 GC 患者的 CD54+tsNeus 数量增加。此外,通过药理学增强 YAP 活性可选择性激活中性粒细胞,抑制难治性 GC,且无明显的炎症相关副作用。因此,我们的工作在 GC 中对肿瘤特异性中性粒细胞进行了特征描述,并揭示了 YAP/TAZ-CD54 轴在 tsNeus 中的重要作用,为开发基于中性粒细胞的抗肿瘤治疗方法开辟了新的可能性。
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