Mohammad Mahmoudi Gomari, Taha Ghantabpour, Nima Pourgholam, Neda Rostami, Stephen M Hatfield, Farzaneh Namazifar, Shadi Abkhiz, Seyed Sadegh Eslami, Mahsa Ramezanpour, Mahsa Darestanifarahani, Igor Astsaturov, Sidi A Bencherif
{"title":"Breaking barriers: Smart vaccine platforms for cancer immunomodulation.","authors":"Mohammad Mahmoudi Gomari, Taha Ghantabpour, Nima Pourgholam, Neda Rostami, Stephen M Hatfield, Farzaneh Namazifar, Shadi Abkhiz, Seyed Sadegh Eslami, Mahsa Ramezanpour, Mahsa Darestanifarahani, Igor Astsaturov, Sidi A Bencherif","doi":"10.1002/cac2.70002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cac2.70002","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Despite significant advancements in cancer treatment, current therapies often fail to completely eradicate malignant cells. This shortfall underscores the urgent need to explore alternative approaches such as cancer vaccines. Leveraging the immune system's natural ability to target and kill cancer cells holds great therapeutic potential. However, the development of cancer vaccines is hindered by several challenges, including low stability, inadequate immune response activation, and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, which limit their efficacy. Recent progress in various fields, such as click chemistry, nanotechnology, exosome engineering, and neoantigen design, offer innovative solutions to these challenges. These achievements have led to the emergence of smart vaccine platforms (SVPs), which integrate protective carriers for messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) with functionalization strategies to optimize targeted delivery. Click chemistry further enhances SVP performance by improving the encapsulation of mRNA antigens and facilitating their precise delivery to target cells. This review highlights the latest developments in SVP technologies for cancer therapy, exploring both their opportunities and challenges in advancing these transformative approaches.</p>","PeriodicalId":9495,"journal":{"name":"Cancer Communications","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":20.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143122299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evaluation of cervical cancer screening strategies in women living with HIV in Thailand.","authors":"Patumrat Sripan, Myrtille Prouté, Nicole Ngo-Giang-Huong, Samreung Rangdaeng, Chaiwat Putiyanun, Guttiga Halue, Prattana Leenasirimakul, Suchart Thongpaen, Sudanee Buranabanjasatean, Sophie Le Coeur, Tristan Delory","doi":"10.1002/cac2.70000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cac2.70000","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9495,"journal":{"name":"Cancer Communications","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":20.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143058278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cuproplasia and cuproptosis, two sides of the coin.","authors":"Kaizhong Lu, Chandra Sugiarto Wijaya, Qinghua Yao, Hongchuan Jin, Lifeng Feng","doi":"10.1002/cac2.70001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cac2.70001","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Copper is an essential micronutrient in the human body, mainly acting as a crucial cofactor required for a wide range of physiological processes across nearly all cell types. Recent advances revealed that tumor cells seize copper to fulfill their rapid proliferation, metastasis, immune evasion, and so on by reprogramming the copper regulatory network, defined as cuproplasia. Thus, targeting copper chelation to reduce copper levels has been considered a rational tumor therapy strategy. However, overloaded copper ions could be toxic, which leads to the aggregation of lipoylated mitochondrial proteins and the depletion of iron-sulfur clusters, ultimately resulting in cell death, termed cuproptosis. Upon its discovery, cuproptosis has attracted great interest from oncologists, and targeting cuproptosis by copper ionophores exhibits as a potential anti-tumor therapy. In this review, we present the underlying mechanisms involved in cuproplasia and cuproptosis. Additionally, we sum up the chemicals targeting either cuproplasia or cuproptosis for cancer therapy. Further attention should be paid to distinguishing cancer patients who are suitable for targeting cuproplasia or cuproptosis.</p>","PeriodicalId":9495,"journal":{"name":"Cancer Communications","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":20.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143045226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cover Image, Volume 45, Issue 1","authors":"Jiali Yao, Linlin Ji, Guang Wang, Jin Ding","doi":"10.1002/cac2.12551","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cac2.12551","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The cover image is based on the article <i>Effect of neutrophils on tumor immunity and immunotherapy resistance with underlying mechanisms</i> by Jiali Yao et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/cac2.12613.\u0000\u0000 <figure>\u0000 <div><picture>\u0000 <source></source></picture><p></p>\u0000 </div>\u0000 </figure></p>","PeriodicalId":9495,"journal":{"name":"Cancer Communications","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":20.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cac2.12551","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143118821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Stefano Volinia, Anna Terrazzan, Tomasz S Kaminski, Krystian Jadzewski, Eva Reali, Nicoletta Bianchi, Jeff Palatini
{"title":"Circulating tumor cells share RNA modules with early embryo trophectoderm and with metastatic cancer.","authors":"Stefano Volinia, Anna Terrazzan, Tomasz S Kaminski, Krystian Jadzewski, Eva Reali, Nicoletta Bianchi, Jeff Palatini","doi":"10.1002/cac2.12664","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cac2.12664","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9495,"journal":{"name":"Cancer Communications","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":20.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143032318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jia Xiang Jin, Fabia Fuchslocher, Martha Carreno-Gonzalez, Felina Zahnow, A Katharina Ceranski, Rainer Will, Dominic Helm, Felix Bestvater, Ana Banito, Roland Imle, Shunya Ohmura, Florencia Cidre-Aranaz, Thomas G P Grünewald
{"title":"Loss of SMARCB1 evokes targetable epigenetic vulnerabilities in epithelioid sarcoma.","authors":"Jia Xiang Jin, Fabia Fuchslocher, Martha Carreno-Gonzalez, Felina Zahnow, A Katharina Ceranski, Rainer Will, Dominic Helm, Felix Bestvater, Ana Banito, Roland Imle, Shunya Ohmura, Florencia Cidre-Aranaz, Thomas G P Grünewald","doi":"10.1002/cac2.12665","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cac2.12665","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9495,"journal":{"name":"Cancer Communications","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":20.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143000621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hye Jung Baek, Geun Hee Han, Eun Joo Cho, Jihao Xu, Min Kyung Ki, Eun Jung Park, Tae Hyun Kim, Dong Hoon Shin, Heesun Cheong, Chu-Xia Deng, Sung Chul Lim, Chang-il Hwang, Daehee Hwang, Sang Soo Kim
{"title":"Inhibition of mTOR attenuates the initiation and progression of BRCA1-associated mammary tumors","authors":"Hye Jung Baek, Geun Hee Han, Eun Joo Cho, Jihao Xu, Min Kyung Ki, Eun Jung Park, Tae Hyun Kim, Dong Hoon Shin, Heesun Cheong, Chu-Xia Deng, Sung Chul Lim, Chang-il Hwang, Daehee Hwang, Sang Soo Kim","doi":"10.1002/cac2.12663","DOIUrl":"10.1002/cac2.12663","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Inherited mutation in breast cancer susceptibility gene 1 (<i>BRCA1</i>) is strongly associated with mammary tumors that exhibit triple-negative characteristics, are insensitive to endocrine-targeted therapies, and show basal-like properties, including aggressive phenotypes [<span>1, 2</span>]. It has been reported that the average cumulative risk of breast cancer for <i>BRCA1</i> mutation carriers by age 70 years is 57% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 47%-66%) [<span>3</span>]. Despite the high incidence and aggressive characteristics of <i>BRCA1</i>-associated breast cancer, few substantial improvements in preventing or treating this cancer have been made, largely due to the challenges of clinic-based cohort studies. During malignant transformation, cancer progression is facilitated by metabolic reprogramming–one of the hallmark characteristics of cancer. Previously, we found that inhibition of AKT is a potential strategy for the prevention and therapeutic management of <i>Brca1</i>-mutant mammary tumors. However, pharmacological inhibition proved less effective and less safe compared to genetic perturbation, limiting its potential for clinical application [<span>4</span>]. Meanwhile, mTOR, a key regulator of metabolism and a downstream target of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, has emerged as a promising therapeutic target for several diseases, including treatment of cancer [<span>5</span>].</p><p>In addition to identifying the contribution of mTOR signaling to BRCA1-deficient cells (Supplementary Figure S1), we provide genetic and pharmacological evidence using multi-orthogonal preclinical models [<span>6-8</span>] that mTOR is closely involved in the development and growth of <i>Brca1</i>-mutated mammary tumors (Figure 1A). To investigate the role of mTOR in the absence of BRCA1, we assessed the development of mammary glands in post-pubertal <i>Brca1/Mtor</i>-mutant mice by examining ductal and lobular development of the fourth mammary gland. Measurements of mammary gland density using the Branch software (ver. 1.1 [<span>9</span>]) showed that ductal length and branching were significantly diminished in the mammary glands of <i>Brca1<sup>co/co</sup>Mtor<sup>co/co</sup>MMTV-Cre</i> mice (Figure 1B,C, Supplementary Figure S2). To determine whether mTOR contributes to BRCA1-deficient mammary tumor formation, we examined tumor formation in cohorts of <i>Brca1<sup>co/co</sup></i> (<i>n</i> = 28), <i>Brca1<sup>co/co</sup>Mtor<sup>co/co</sup></i> (<i>n</i> = 30), <i>Brca1<sup>co/co</sup>MMTV-Cre</i> (<i>n</i> = 24), and <i>Brca1<sup>co/co</sup>Mtor<sup>co/co</sup>MMTV-Cre</i> (<i>n</i> = 29) mice (Top left of Figure 1A). <i>Brca1<sup>co/co</sup></i> and <i>Brca1<sup>co/co</sup>Mtor<sup>co/co</sup></i> mice showed no signs of mammary abnormalities, including tumors, up to 24 months of age. In contrast, <i>Brca1<sup>co/co</sup>MMTV-Cre</i> mutant mice developed breast cancer, reaching a high incidence (37.5%; 9/24) by 24 months of age. During the s","PeriodicalId":9495,"journal":{"name":"Cancer Communications","volume":"45 4","pages":"486-490"},"PeriodicalIF":20.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cac2.12663","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143000618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Efficacy and safety of KN026 and docetaxel for HER2-positive breast cancer: a phase II clinical trial","authors":"Jianli Ma, Jingxuan Wang, Ting Xu, Quchang Ouyang, Xiaojia Wang, Jingfen Wang, Lu Gan, Zhong Ouyang, Daren Lin, Tao Sun, Changping Shan, Herui Yao, Baochun Zhang, Zhengguang Li, Zhixiang Zhuang, Ying Lu, Hongwei Yang, Jian Huang, Xingwang Yang, Hongmei Sun, Qingyuan Zhang","doi":"10.1002/cac2.12662","DOIUrl":"10.1002/cac2.12662","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Background</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The standard first-line treatment for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive recurrent/metastatic breast cancer currently includes pertuzumab plus trastuzumab and docetaxel. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of KN026, an anti-HER2 bispecific antibody, plus docetaxel in first-line treatment of HER2-positive recurrent/metastatic breast cancer.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Methods</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This open-label, single-arm, phase II study enrolled patients with HER2-positive recurrent/metastatic breast cancer in 19 centers across China from December 30, 2019 to May 27, 2021. Patients were administered KN026 (30 mg/kg) plus docetaxel (75 mg/m<sup>2</sup>) in 21-day cycles. Primary endpoints included the objective response rate (ORR) and duration of response (DOR). In addition, overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), clinical benefit rate (CBR) and safety profile were examined.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Results</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>A total of 57 patients were included. In the efficacy analysis set of 55 patients, the ORR was 76.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 63.0%-86.8%), and the CBR was 85.5% (95% CI, 73.3%-93.5%). The median DOR was not reached (95% CI, 20.7 months-not reached). In the safety set of 57 patients, the median PFS was 27.7 months (95% CI, 18.0 months-not reached). The median OS was not reached, with OS rates at 12, 24 and 30 months of 93.0%, 84.1% and 78.5%, respectively. Grade ≥3 treatment-emergent adverse events (AEs) were detected in 36 (63.2%) patients. No deaths were attributed to KN026 or docetaxel.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Conclusion</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>KN026 plus docetaxel showed promising efficacy and a manageable safety profile in first-line treatment of HER2-positive recurrent/metastatic breast cancer.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":9495,"journal":{"name":"Cancer Communications","volume":"45 4","pages":"476-485"},"PeriodicalIF":20.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cac2.12662","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143000555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ruben Malmberg, Bram C. Agema, Maaike M. Hofman, Stefani Oosterveld, Sander Bins, Daphne W. Dumoulin, Arjen Joosse, Joachim G. J. V. Aerts, Reno Debets, Birgit C. P. Koch, Astrid A. M. van der Veldt, Roelof W. F. van Leeuwen, Ron H. J. Mathijssen
{"title":"Bioequivalence of alternative pembrolizumab dosing regimens: current practice and future perspectives","authors":"Ruben Malmberg, Bram C. Agema, Maaike M. Hofman, Stefani Oosterveld, Sander Bins, Daphne W. Dumoulin, Arjen Joosse, Joachim G. J. V. Aerts, Reno Debets, Birgit C. P. Koch, Astrid A. M. van der Veldt, Roelof W. F. van Leeuwen, Ron H. J. Mathijssen","doi":"10.1002/cac2.12661","DOIUrl":"10.1002/cac2.12661","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), including humanized anti-programmed cell death protein 1/programmed death-ligand 1 (anti-PD-1/PD-L1) monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), such as pembrolizumab, have transformed cancer treatment. Pembrolizumab was initially approved as a three-weekly (Q3W) 2 mg/kg weight-based dose by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which was later replaced by a 200 mg Q3W fixed-dose, mainly based on in silico simulations. Later, a fixed 400 mg six-weekly (Q6W) regimen was approved based on pharmacokinetic simulations [<span>1</span>].</p><p>Due to increasing ICI use and high costs per treatment, increasingly large portions of healthcare budgets are shifted to ICI treatment. Therefore, it is important to handle ICIs as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. Hence, the Q6W regimen was introduced, lowering the total amount of ICI administrations per patient and the strain on healthcare capacity, and improving patient convenience. The cost-effectiveness of ICI treatment could be optimized further by using alternative dosing strategies (ADS) [<span>1</span>]. Some of these ADS have already been tested for pembrolizumab in some countries [<span>2, 3</span>].</p><p>Recently, the FDA provided bioequivalence guidelines for ADS, specifically for anti-PD-1/PD-L1 mAbs [<span>4</span>]. These guidelines support the use of pharmacokinetic-modeling to simulate steady-state trough concentrations (C<sub>trough,ss</sub>) and area under the curve (AUC; exposure) to establish bioequivalence for anti-PD-1/PD-L1 mAbs. In these guidelines, ADS are considered bioequivalent when both C<sub>trough,ss</sub> and exposure are at most 20% lower compared to the dosing regimen used while establishing efficacy in clinical trials (i.e. the reference dosing regimen). A maximum of 25% increase in the maximum concentration (C<sub>max</sub>) is used as the upper boundary, unless adequate clinical evidence shows that increasing the C<sub>max</sub> does not increase toxicity. For pembrolizumab, incidences of toxicities were generally consistent across a 2-10 mg/kg dose range in multiple trials [<span>5</span>].</p><p>To verify whether various ADS (Figure 1, Supplementary Table S1) are bioequivalent following the current FDA guidelines, we assessed bioequivalence using pharmacokinetic modelling. Using pharmacokinetic data from a real-world cohort, the best performing model was selected with which bioequivalence was assessed in extrapolations from this cohort (“extrapolation”) and also from a virtual (“simulation”) cohort. Details on both cohorts, as well as modelling procedures, are depicted in the Supplementary Material and Methods. As a reference, the Q3W 2 mg/kg dosing regimen was used, as this regimen was used in the original approval. Results of these analyses are shown in Figure 1. The simulated ADS for pembrolizumab given every 3 or 4 weeks (Q3/4W) were bioequivalent according to the FDA guidelines. Interestingly, despite meeting the criteria for e","PeriodicalId":9495,"journal":{"name":"Cancer Communications","volume":"45 4","pages":"471-475"},"PeriodicalIF":20.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cac2.12661","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143000550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Antonia Stubenvoll, Maria Schmidt, Johanna Moeller, Max Alexander Lingner Chango, Carolyn Schultz, Olga Antoniadou, Henry Loeffler-Wirth, Stephan Bernhart, Florian Große, Beatrice Thier, Annette Paschen, Ulf Anderegg, Jan C. Simon, Mirjana Ziemer, Clara T. Schoeder, Hans Binder, Manfred Kunz
{"title":"Single-cell transcriptomics and epigenomics point to CD58-CD2 interaction in controlling primary melanoma growth and immunity","authors":"Antonia Stubenvoll, Maria Schmidt, Johanna Moeller, Max Alexander Lingner Chango, Carolyn Schultz, Olga Antoniadou, Henry Loeffler-Wirth, Stephan Bernhart, Florian Große, Beatrice Thier, Annette Paschen, Ulf Anderegg, Jan C. Simon, Mirjana Ziemer, Clara T. Schoeder, Hans Binder, Manfred Kunz","doi":"10.1002/cac2.12651","DOIUrl":"10.1002/cac2.12651","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Immunotherapy is currently one of the most promising treatment options for malignant melanoma [<span>1</span>]. To uncover new immunological targets for future treatment approaches, single-cell transcriptomic and epigenomic analyses were performed on human primary melanoma (MM) and melanocytic nevus (Nev) samples (Figure 1A). The detailed methods of this study are described in the Supplementary Material.</p><p>MM and Nev biopsies (Supplementary Figure S1; Supplementary Table S1) were analyzed by single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and single-cell Assay for Transposase-Accessible Chromatin sequencing (scATAC-seq) (Supplementary Figure S2; Supplementary Tables S2 and S3). Using Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP), 28 distinct cellular clusters were identified and annotated based on scRNA-seq data from a previous report and manual curation (Figure 1B; Supplementary Figure S3A) [<span>2</span>]. Examples of gene expression patterns for individual cell types are provided in Supplementary Table S4. Lesional T lymphocytes were quantified using scRNA-seq data and anti-CD3 immunofluorescence staining, which revealed three distinct immune states: hot (>25 % T cells), intermediate (>6-25 % T cells), and cold (0-6 % T cells) (Supplementary Table S5).</p><p>Based on a previous study examining melanoma cell differentiation statuses, the melanoma cell cluster was divided into 8 distinct subclusters (Supplementary Figure S3B, C) [<span>3</span>]. Unsupervised clustering further refined these findings, predicting 11 cellular subclusters of melanoma cells (Figure 1C, Supplementary Table S6) [<span>3</span>].</p><p>To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying melanoma cell dedifferentiation, RNA velocity and latent time (LT) analyses were performed (Supplementary Material and Methods). These analyses measure developmental processes based on the gene expression patterns of spliced and unspliced genes [<span>4</span>], with LT more directly reflecting transcriptional dynamics. As shown in Figure 1C, RNA velocity arrows indicate a trajectory from the melanoma subcluster of undifferentiated, neural crest (nc)-like cells on the left toward the more differentiated Mel_trans-melan_c7 and Mel_trans-melan_c8 subclusters at the right edge. LT analysis (Figure 1C) and the latent time heatmap (Figure 1D) revealed an opposing trajectory toward a more dedifferentiated state, exemplified by the Mel_trans subcluster. Here, melanoma cell dedifferentiation was linked to gene sets enriched in antigen presentation and the induction of T cell receptor signaling (Figure 1D). This aligns with the known association between high immune cell infiltrates and dedifferentiated tumors. Notably, Serpin Family E Member 2 <i>(SERPINE2)</i> has been identified as a mediator of melanoma metastasis and tumor progression [<span>5</span>].</p><p>Next, we performed regulon analysis (https://github.com/aertslab/pySCENIC) of the melanoma cell clusters, which refers to a ","PeriodicalId":9495,"journal":{"name":"Cancer Communications","volume":"45 4","pages":"465-470"},"PeriodicalIF":20.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cac2.12651","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142982600","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}