iScience (Feb 2023)

Proteomic and single-cell landscape reveals novel pathogenic mechanisms of HBV-infected intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

  • Yifei Shen,
  • Shuaishuai Xu,
  • Chanqi Ye,
  • Qiong Li,
  • Ruyin Chen,
  • Wei Wu,
  • Qi Jiang,
  • Yunlu Jia,
  • Xiaochen Zhang,
  • Longjiang Fan,
  • Wenguang Fu,
  • Ming Jiang,
  • Jinzhang Chen,
  • Michael P. Timko,
  • Peng Zhao,
  • Jian Ruan

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 26, no. 2
p. 106003

Abstract

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Summary: Despite the epidemiological association between intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, little is known about the relevant oncogenic effects. A cohort of 32 HBV-infected ICC and 89 non-HBV-ICC patients were characterized using whole-exome sequencing, proteomic analysis, and single-cell RNA sequencing. Proteomic analysis revealed decreased cell-cell junction levels in HBV-ICC patients. The cell-cell junction level had an inverse relationship with the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program in ICC patients. Analysis of the immune landscape found that more CD8 T cells and Th2 cells were present in HBV-ICC patients. Single-cell analysis indicated that transforming growth factor beta signaling–related EMT program changes increased in tumor cells of HBV-ICC patients. Moreover, ICAM1+ tumor-associated macrophages are correlated with a poor prognosis and contributed to the EMT in HBV-ICC patients. Our findings provide new insights into the behavior of HBV-infected ICC driven by various pathogenic mechanisms involving decreased cell junction levels and increased progression of the EMT program.

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