"Science": Peking University team publishes pan-cancer T cell single cell map

Immune cells in tumors play an important role in eliminating cancer cells

Therefore, how to avoid the exhaustion of T cells and make them continue to function has become an important direction for the development of anti-cancer therapies

It is speculated that, in different types of cancer, differences in the tumor microenvironment have different effects on the state of T cells, and further lead to differences in the effects of immune checkpoint blocking therapies

Prior to this, using single-cell transcriptome sequencing and other methods, the team of Peking University BIOPIC and Professor Zhang Zemin from the School of Life Sciences had conducted T-cell single-cell studies on three types of cancers: liver cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, and colorectal cancer

In the latest research published in Science, Professor Zhang Zemin’s team combined with Peking University Cancer Hospital Ji Jiafu, Bu Zhaode’s research group and Peking University Third Hospital to construct a single-cell level pan-cancer T cell covering 21 types of cancer Atlas

In this T cell map, the research team identified 17 CD8+ T cell groups and 24 CD4+ T cell groups.

For the main cell group that kills CD8+ T cells, the research team discovered two T cell depletion pathways that are common in a variety of cancers: through effector memory T cells or tissue-resident memory T cells to a depleted state

▲The study constructed a single-cell level pan-cancer T cell map covering 21 types of cancers (picture source: reference [1])

In addition, the study also found that some depletion-related transcription factors are highly expressed in depleted T cells of most cancer types, such as TOX and PRDM1; but the expression of other transcription factors, such as SOX4 and FOXP3, shows obvious expression.

The information in this map also provides a reference for the clinical treatment of cancer patients

▲The research framework and main findings of T cell single cell atlas (picture source: reference [1])

Therefore, this research is based on the study of single-cell pan-cancer T cells, which deepens people's understanding of tumor-infiltrating T cells, and also provides guidance for the development of new cancer immunotherapies and the realization of more effective patient stratification

Note: The original text has been deleted

Reference materials:

[1] Liangtao Zheng et al.