Nature: Immunomicroenvironment subtypes and neutrophil heterogeneity in liver cancer

Figure: Liver cancer immune microenvironment TIMELASER typing system and neutrophil heterogeneity

With the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers: 81988101, 82173035, 82030079, 81972656, 81802813, 81972735, 81872508), the research groups of Professor Zhang Ning, Professor Zhang Zemin and Professor Zhu Jiye of Peking University have made new progress
in the regulation of immune microenvironment and neutrophil regulation mechanism of liver cancer 。 The research results, titled "Liver tumour immune microenvironment subtypes and neutrophil heterogeneity", were published
online in the journal Nature on November 9, 2022.
Link to the paper: _istranslated="1">.

Clinical practice in recent years has proved that comprehensive tumor treatment combined with immunotherapy, targeted therapy and chemotherapy can significantly improve the prognosis of tumor patients, but some tumor patients will still develop drug resistance and recurrence after treatment, and the prognosis is poor
.
Studies have found that heterogeneity of tumor immune microenvironment is one of the important reasons for tumor drug resistance and recurrence, but there is a lack of systematic understanding
.
Precise elucidating of the heterogeneity of the tumor immune microenvironment will help select tumor treatment options, monitor efficacy, and develop new immunotherapy targets
.

This study revealed the heterogeneity of tumor-associated neutrophils (TAN) in liver cancer tissues, identified and elucidated the mechanism of tumor-associated neutrophil subsets CCL4+ and PD-L1⁺TAN in promoting liver cancer, and proved that targeting tumor-associated neutrophils can reduce their resistance to killer CD8⁺ through in vitro and in vivo experiments Inhibition of T cells, and reduction of recruitment of pro-tumor macrophages, ultimately inhibition of the growth of liver cancer (Figure).

The results suggest that the intervention strategy targeting tumor-associated neutrophils can significantly improve the efficacy of immunotherapy in patients with liver cancer, thereby providing experimental evidence for the analysis of the heterogeneity of the immune microenvironment of liver cancer and providing a theoretical basis
for the implementation of immunoprecision therapy for liver cancer.