Nguyen Ngan, Henrich Ian C
Department of Experimental Therapeutics, Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Mol Cancer Res. 2025 Feb 6;23(2):155-168. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-24-0299.
Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a rare cancer that arises from the bile duct and is broadly classified by the location of the tumor as either intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) or extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (eCCA). Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, yet its utility in CCA has been limited as the tumor microenvironment (TME) in CCA is poorly understood compared with other common cancers. Utilizing previously published transcriptome data, our reanalysis has revealed that CCA has one of the highest relative levels of NK cells, a potent cytotoxic immune cell, compared with other cancers. However, despite iCCA and eCCA having comparable relative levels of NK infiltration, NK cell infiltration only correlated with survival in patients with eCCA. Our subsequent investigation revealed that although iCCA and eCCA profoundly altered NK activity, eCCA had a significantly reduced impact on NK functionality. Whereas iCCA was resistant to long-term NK coculture, eCCA was markedly more sensitive. Moreover, although both iCCA and eCCA dysregulated key NK-activating receptors, eCCA coculture did not impact NKp30 nor NKp44 expression. Furthermore, tumor transcriptome analysis of NKHigh CCA samples revealed a modulation of multiple immune and nonimmune cell types within the TME. Implications: These studies are the first to investigate how iCCA and eCCA impact NK cell functionality through shared and distinct mechanisms and how elevated NK cell infiltration could shape the CCA TME in a subtype-dependent manner.
胆管癌(CCA)是一种起源于胆管的罕见癌症,根据肿瘤位置大致分为肝内胆管癌(iCCA)或肝外胆管癌(eCCA)。免疫疗法彻底改变了癌症治疗方式,然而其在CCA中的应用一直有限,因为与其他常见癌症相比,人们对CCA的肿瘤微环境(TME)了解甚少。利用先前发表的转录组数据,我们的重新分析发现,与其他癌症相比,CCA中具有细胞毒性的免疫细胞——自然杀伤(NK)细胞的相对水平是最高的之一。然而,尽管iCCA和eCCA的NK浸润相对水平相当,但NK细胞浸润仅与eCCA患者的生存率相关。我们随后的研究表明,尽管iCCA和eCCA都深刻改变了NK活性,但eCCA对NK功能的影响明显降低。iCCA对长期NK共培养具有抗性,而eCCA则明显更敏感。此外,尽管iCCA和eCCA都使关键的NK激活受体失调,但eCCA共培养并未影响NKp30和NKp44的表达。此外,对NK高浸润CCA样本的肿瘤转录组分析揭示了TME内多种免疫和非免疫细胞类型的调节。启示:这些研究首次探讨了iCCA和eCCA如何通过共同和不同的机制影响NK细胞功能,以及NK细胞浸润增加如何以亚型依赖的方式塑造CCA TME。