1. Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals the effects of chemotherapy on human pancreatic adenocarcinoma and its tumor microenvironment
- Author
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Gregor Werba, Daniel Weissinger, Emily A. Kawaler, Ende Zhao, Despoina Kalfakakou, Surajit Dhara, Lidong Wang, Heather B. Lim, Grace Oh, Xiaohong Jing, Nina Beri, Lauren Khanna, Tamas Gonda, Paul Oberstein, Cristina Hajdu, Cynthia Loomis, Adriana Heguy, Mara H. Sherman, Amanda W. Lund, Theodore H. Welling, Igor Dolgalev, Aristotelis Tsirigos, and Diane M. Simeone
- Subjects
Multidisciplinary ,General Physics and Astronomy ,General Chemistry ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology - Abstract
The tumor microenvironment (TME) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a complex ecosystem that drives tumor progression; however, in-depth single cell characterization of the PDAC TME and its role in response to therapy is lacking. Here, we perform single-cell RNA sequencing on freshly collected human PDAC samples either before or after chemotherapy. Overall, we find a heterogeneous mixture of basal and classical cancer cell subtypes, along with distinct cancer-associated fibroblast and macrophage subpopulations. Strikingly, classical and basal-like cancer cells exhibit similar transcriptional responses to chemotherapy and do not demonstrate a shift towards a basal-like transcriptional program among treated samples. We observe decreased ligand-receptor interactions in treated samples, particularly between TIGIT on CD8 + T cells and its receptor on cancer cells, and identify TIGIT as the major inhibitory checkpoint molecule of CD8 + T cells. Our results suggest that chemotherapy profoundly impacts the PDAC TME and may promote resistance to immunotherapy.
- Published
- 2023
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