Protocol to analyze immune cells in the tumor microenvironment by transcriptome using machine learning

Abstract

Summary: Immunotherapy is a promising strategy to treat cancer. Here, we present a protocol for analyzing the transcriptome-based phenotypic alterations and immune cell infiltration in the tumor microenvironment. We describe steps for integrating single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data, comparing phenotypes and origins of mononuclear phagocytes, inferring the differentiation trajectory and infiltration process, and identifying infiltration-associated genes using machine learning. We then detail procedures for exploring the impact of these genes in prognosis through the integrated microarray and bulk RNA-seq data to obtain potential drug targets.For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Liao et al.1 : Publisher’s note: Undertaking any experimental protocol requires adherence to local institutional guidelines for laboratory safety and ethics.

Keywords

• Bioinformatics
• Sequence Analysis
• Single Cell
• Cancer
• RNA-seq