Single-Cell Profiling Defines Transcriptomic Signatures Specific to Tumor-Reactive versus Virus-Responsive CD4+ T Cells

作者：Assaf Magen, Jia Nie, Thomas Ciucci, Samira Tamoutounour, Yongmei Zhao, Monika Mehta, Bao Tran, Dorian B. McGavern, Sridhar Hannenhalli, Rémy Bosselut · 发表于：Cell Reports · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.1016/j.celrep.2019.10.131 · 被引用次数：68 · 研究领域：Immune Cell Function and Interaction、Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers、CAR-T cell therapy research

Most current tumor immunotherapy strategies leverage cytotoxic CD8 + T cells. Despite evidence for clinical potential of CD4 + tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), their functional diversity limits our ability to harness their activity. Here, we use single-cell mRNA sequencing to analyze the response of tumor-specific CD4 + TILs and draining lymph node (dLN) T cells. Computational approaches to characterize subpopulations identify TIL transcriptomic patterns strikingly distinct from acute and chronic anti-viral responses and dominated by diversity among T-bet-expressing T helper type 1 (Th1)-like cells. In contrast, the dLN response includes T follicular helper (Tfh) cells but lacks Th1 cells. We identify a type I interferon-driven signature in Th1-like TILs and show that it is found in human cancers, in which it is negatively associated with response to checkpoint therapy. Our study provides a proof-of-concept methodology to characterize tumor-specific CD4 + T cell effector programs. Targeting these programs should help improve immunotherapy strategies.