Dataset Information

Single-cell RNA-seq of melanoma ecosystems reveals sources of T cells exclusion linked to immunotherapy clinical outcomes

ABSTRACT: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) produce durable responses in some melanoma patients, but many patients derive no clinical benefit, and the molecular underpinnings of such resistance remain elusive. Here, we leveraged single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) from 31 melanoma tumors and novel computational methods to interrogate malignant cell states that promote immune evasion. We identified a resistance program expressed by malignant cells that is associated with T cell exclusion and immune evasion. The program is present prior to immunotherapy, characterizes cold niches, and predicts clinical responses to anti-PD-1 therapy in an independent cohort of 112 melanoma patients. CDK4/6-inhibition represses this program in individual malignant cells, induces senescence, and reduces melanoma tumor outgrowth in a mouse model when given in combination with immunotherapy. Our study provides a high-resolution landscape of ICI resistant cell states, identifies clinically predictive signatures, and forms a basis for the development of novel therapeutic strategies that could overcome immunotherapy resistance.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE115978 | GEO | 2018/11/01

REPOSITORIES: GEO

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:This ordinary differential equation model simulating the mechanisms that govern cancer-immune dynamics and their role in tumor responses to immunotherapy is described by the publication: Creemers JHA, Lesterhuis WJ, Mehra N, et al. "A tipping point in cancer-immune dynamics leads to divergent immunotherapy responses and hampers biomarker discovery." Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2021;9:e002032. doi:10.1136/jitc-2020-002032 Comment: Simulation parameters in supplementary table 1 mismatch with figure 1 in manuscript. Therefore, to clarify, the following parameter values were used: Reproduction of Fig. 1(C), xi = 0.0005 Reproduction of Fig. 1(D), xi = 0.00025 Abstract: Background: Predicting treatment response or survival of cancer patients remains challenging in immuno-oncology. Efforts to overcome these challenges focus, among others, on the discovery of new biomarkers. Despite advances in cellular and molecular approaches, only a limited number of candidate biomarkers eventually enter clinical practice. Methods: A computational modeling approach based on ordinary differential equations was used to simulate the fundamental mechanisms that dictate tumor-immune dynamics and to investigate its implications on responses to immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) and patient survival. Using in silico biomarker discovery trials, we revealed fundamental principles that explain the diverging success rates of biomarker discovery programs. Results: Our model shows that a tipping point—a sharp state transition between immune control and immune evasion—induces a strongly non-linear relationship between patient survival and both immunological and tumor-related parameters. In patients close to the tipping point, ICI therapy may lead to long-lasting survival benefits, whereas patients far from the tipping point may fail to benefit from these potent treatments. Conclusion: These findings have two important implications for clinical oncology. First, the apparent conundrum that ICI induces substantial benefits in some patients yet completely fails in others could be, to a large extent, explained by the presence of a tipping point. Second, predictive biomarkers for immunotherapy should ideally combine both immunological and tumor-related markers, as a patient’s distance from the tipping point can typically not be reliably determined from solely one of these. The notion of a tipping point in cancer-immune dynamics helps to devise more accurate strategies to select appropriate treatments for patients with cancer.

Dataset Information

Single-cell RNA-seq of melanoma ecosystems reveals sources of T cells exclusion linked to immunotherapy clinical outcomes

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure