Frontiers in Immunology (Jul 2022)

Single-Cell Transcriptomics of Immune Cells Reveal Diversity and Exhaustion Signatures in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

  • Ying Zhao,
  • Qilin Zhang,
  • Kailin Tu,
  • Yanmei Chen,
  • Yuxuan Peng,
  • Yinyun Ni,
  • Guonian Zhu,
  • Cheng Cheng,
  • Yangqian Li,
  • Xue Xiao,
  • Chunyan Yu,
  • Keying Lu,
  • Yaxin Chen,
  • Chengpin Li,
  • Jun Tang,
  • Gang Wang,
  • Wenxin Luo,
  • Wengeng Zhang,
  • Guowei Che,
  • Weimin Li,
  • Weimin Li,
  • Zhoufeng Wang,
  • Dan Xie

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.854724
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13

Abstract

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Understanding immune cell phenotypes in the tumor microenvironment (TME) is essential for explaining and predicting progression of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and its response to immunotherapy. Here we describe the single-cell transcriptomics of CD45+ immune cells from tumors, normal tissues and blood of NSCLC patients. We identified three clusters of immune cells exerting immunosuppressive effects: CD8+ T cells with exhausted phenotype, tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) with a pro-inflammatory M2 phenotype, and regulatory B cells (B regs) with tumor-promoting characteristics. We identified genes that may be mediating T cell phenotypes, including the transcription factors ONECUT2 and ETV4 in exhausted CD8+ T cells, TIGIT and CTL4 high expression in regulatory T cells. Our results highlight the heterogeneity of CD45+ immune cells in the TME and provide testable hypotheses about the cell types and genes that define the TME.

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