单细胞测序揭示黑色素瘤和肺癌中癌症/睾丸抗原表达的广泛肿瘤内异质性。

Single-cell sequencing unveils extensive intratumoral heterogeneity of cancer/testis antigen expression in melanoma and lung cancer.

机构信息

Department of Cancer and Inflammation Research, Institute for Molecular Medicine, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.

Department of Pathology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark.

出版信息

J Immunother Cancer. 2024 Jun 17;12(6):e008759. doi: 10.1136/jitc-2023-008759.

Abstract

Cancer/testis antigens (CTAs) are widely expressed in melanoma and lung cancer, emerging as promising targets for vaccination strategies and T-cell-based therapies in these malignancies. Despite recognizing the essential impact of intratumoral heterogeneity on clinical responses to immunotherapy, our understanding of intratumoral heterogeneity in CTA expression has remained limited. We employed single-cell mRNA sequencing to delineate the CTA expression profiles of cancer cells in clinically derived melanoma and lung cancer samples. Our findings reveal a high degree of intratumoral transcriptional heterogeneity in CTA expression. In melanoma, every cell expressed at least one CTA. However, most individual CTAs, including the widely used therapeutic targets NY-ESO-1 and MAGE, were confined to subpopulations of cells and were uncoordinated in their expression, resulting in mosaics of cancer cells with diverse CTA profiles. Coordinated expression was observed, however, mainly among highly structurally and evolutionarily related CTA genes. Importantly, a minor subset of CTAs, including PRAME and several members of the GAGE and MAGE-A families, were homogenously expressed in melanomas, highlighting their potential as therapeutic targets. Extensive heterogeneity in CTA expression was also observed in lung cancer. However, the frequency of CTA-positive cancer cells was notably lower and homogenously expressed CTAs were only identified in one of five tumors in this cancer type. Our findings underscore the need for careful CTA target selection in immunotherapy development and clinical testing and offer a rational framework for identifying the most promising candidates.

摘要

癌症/睾丸抗原(CTAs)在黑色素瘤和肺癌中广泛表达,成为这些恶性肿瘤中疫苗策略和 T 细胞为基础的治疗的有前途的靶点。尽管认识到肿瘤内异质性对免疫治疗临床反应的重要影响,但我们对 CTA 表达的肿瘤内异质性的理解仍然有限。我们采用单细胞 mRNA 测序来描绘临床衍生的黑色素瘤和肺癌样本中癌细胞的 CTA 表达谱。我们的研究结果揭示了 CTA 表达的高度肿瘤内转录异质性。在黑色素瘤中,每个细胞至少表达一种 CTA。然而,大多数个体 CTA,包括广泛使用的治疗靶点 NY-ESO-1 和 MAGE,局限于细胞亚群,其表达不协调,导致具有不同 CTA 谱的癌细胞马赛克。然而,主要是高度结构和进化相关的 CTA 基因之间观察到协调表达。重要的是,少数 CTA,包括 PRAME 和 GAGE 和 MAGE-A 家族的几个成员,在黑色素瘤中均匀表达,突出了它们作为治疗靶点的潜力。在肺癌中也观察到 CTA 表达的广泛异质性。然而,CTA 阳性癌细胞的频率明显较低,并且在这种癌症类型的五个肿瘤中只有一个肿瘤中鉴定出均匀表达的 CTA。我们的研究结果强调了在免疫治疗开发和临床测试中仔细选择 CTA 靶标的必要性,并为识别最有前途的候选者提供了合理的框架。

https://cdn.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/blobs/dbe3/11184195/2176326c49c4/jitc-2023-008759f01.jpg

文献AI研究员

20分钟写一篇综述,助力文献阅读效率提升50倍

立即体验

用中文搜PubMed

大模型驱动的PubMed中文搜索引擎

马上搜索