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Analysis of Human T Cell Activity in an Allogeneic Co-Culture Setting of Pre-Treated Tumor Cells
Published on: March 7, 2025
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Cancer cell immune mimicry delineates onco-immunologic modulation
Rui Gao1,2, Bin He2, Qitao Huang2
1Department of Medical Oncology, The Seventh Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen 510275, P.R. China.
Iscience
|October 11, 2021
Summary
Cancer cells mimic immune transcripts, a newly identified cancer hallmark. This immune mimicry influences prognosis and immunotherapy response, offering a refined view of the tumor microenvironment.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Immunology
- Genomics
Background:
- Immune transcripts are crucial for understanding cancer-immune interactions.
- The role of cancer cells mimicking immune transcripts in reprogramming these interactions is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether cancer cells mimic immune transcripts.
- To determine the prognostic and predictive value of cancer cell-derived immune transcripts.
- To develop a refined immune response signature for cancer prognosis.
Main Methods:
- Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of normal and cancer cells.
- Development and validation of an optimized immune response signature (oIRS).
- Correlation analysis between oIRS, patient prognosis, and immunotherapy response.
Main Results:
- Cancer cells exhibit increased immune transcripts during malignant transformation.
- Cancer cell-derived immune transcripts impact prognosis and immunotherapy response.
- oIRS, excluding cancer-specific genes, shows reliable prognostic value, associating antigen presentation, NK cell killing, and T cell signaling with favorable outcomes.
- Higher oIRS expression correlates with better immunotherapy response and CD83+ cell infiltration predicts favorable prognosis in breast cancer.
Conclusions:
- Immune mimicry is a novel cancer hallmark reflecting cancer cell plasticity.
- oIRS provides a more accurate prognostic tool and predicts immunotherapy response.
- Findings offer a refined perspective on the tumor microenvironment and cancer-immune interactions.
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