Nature Communications (May 2021)

Longitudinal single-cell profiling reveals molecular heterogeneity and tumor-immune evolution in refractory mantle cell lymphoma

  • Shaojun Zhang,
  • Vivian Changying Jiang,
  • Guangchun Han,
  • Dapeng Hao,
  • Junwei Lian,
  • Yang Liu,
  • Qingsong Cai,
  • Rongjia Zhang,
  • Joseph McIntosh,
  • Ruiping Wang,
  • Minghao Dang,
  • Enyu Dai,
  • Yuanxin Wang,
  • David Santos,
  • Maria Badillo,
  • Angela Leeming,
  • Zhihong Chen,
  • Kimberly Hartig,
  • John Bigcal,
  • Jia Zhou,
  • Rashmi Kanagal-Shamanna,
  • Chi Young Ok,
  • Hun Lee,
  • Raphael E. Steiner,
  • Jianhua Zhang,
  • Xingzhi Song,
  • Ranjit Nair,
  • Sairah Ahmed,
  • Alma Rodriquez,
  • Selvi Thirumurthi,
  • Preetesh Jain,
  • Nicolaus Wagner-Bartak,
  • Holly Hill,
  • Krystle Nomie,
  • Christopher Flowers,
  • Andrew Futreal,
  • Linghua Wang,
  • Michael Wang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22872-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 17

Abstract

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Abstract The mechanisms driving therapeutic resistance and poor outcomes of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) are incompletely understood. We characterize the cellular and molecular heterogeneity within and across patients and delineate the dynamic evolution of tumor and immune cell compartments at single cell resolution in longitudinal specimens from ibrutinib-sensitive patients and non-responders. Temporal activation of multiple cancer hallmark pathways and acquisition of 17q are observed in a refractory MCL. Multi-platform validation is performed at genomic and cellular levels in PDX models and larger patient cohorts. We demonstrate that due to 17q gain, BIRC5/survivin expression is upregulated in resistant MCL tumor cells and targeting BIRC5 results in marked tumor inhibition in preclinical models. In addition, we discover notable differences in the tumor microenvironment including progressive dampening of CD8+ T cells and aberrant cell-to-cell communication networks in refractory MCLs. This study reveals diverse and dynamic tumor and immune programs underlying therapy resistance in MCL.