Lineage-dependent gene expression programs influence the immune landscape of colorectal cancer

Hae Ock Lee, Yourae Hong, Hakki Emre Etlioglu, Yong Beom Cho, Valentina Pomella, Ben Van den Bosch, Jasper Vanhecke, Sara Verbandt, Hyekyung Hong, Jae Woong Min, Nayoung Kim, Hye Hyeon Eum, Junbin Qian, Bram Boeckx, Diether Lambrechts, Petros Tsantoulis, Gert De Hertogh, Woosung Chung, Taeseob Lee, Minae AnHyun Tae Shin, Je Gun Joung, Min Hyeok Jung, Gunhwan Ko, Pratyaksha Wirapati, Seok Hyung Kim, Hee Cheol Kim, Seong Hyeon Yun, Iain Bee Huat Tan, Bobby Ranjan, Woo Yong Lee, Tae You Kim, Jung Kyoon Choi, Young Joon Kim, Shyam Prabhakar, Sabine Tejpar, Woong Yang Park

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

451 Scopus citations

Abstract

Immunotherapy for metastatic colorectal cancer is effective only for mismatch repair-deficient tumors with high microsatellite instability that demonstrate immune infiltration, suggesting that tumor cells can determine their immune microenvironment. To understand this cross-talk, we analyzed the transcriptome of 91,103 unsorted single cells from 23 Korean and 6 Belgian patients. Cancer cells displayed transcriptional features reminiscent of normal differentiation programs, and genetic alterations that apparently fostered immunosuppressive microenvironments directed by regulatory T cells, myofibroblasts and myeloid cells. Intercellular network reconstruction supported the association between cancer cell signatures and specific stromal or immune cell populations. Our collective view of the cellular landscape and intercellular interactions in colorectal cancer provide mechanistic information for the design of efficient immuno-oncology treatment strategies.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)594-603
Number of pages10
JournalNature Genetics
Volume52
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc.

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