Pan-cancer analysis reveals multifaceted roles of nonmyelinating Schwann cells in gastrointestinal cancers

Cancer neuroscience has emerged as a pivotal interdisciplinary field, offering transformative insights into tumor progression mechanisms. Nonmyelinating Schwann cells (NMSCs), integral yet understudied components of the tumor microenvironment (TME), exhibit complex roles in modulating tumor malignancy. Here, we employed deconvolution algorithms to quantify NMSC enrichment by leveraging bulk RNA-seq data. By integrating multi-omics and single-cell strategies along with comprehensive bioinformatics analyses, we delineated NMSC-mediated regulatory networks and their functional impact on gastrointestinal tumors. NMSC enrichment strongly correlated with core cancer hallmarks, notably “Activating invasion and metastasis” and “Inducing angiogenesis”. Immune profiling revealed NMSCs as multifaceted regulators of the TME: positively associated with myeloid-derived suppressor cells, natural killer cells, and regulatory T cells, but inversely correlated with CD56dim NK cells, monocytes, and neutrophils. Genomic analyses uncovered nuanced associations between NMSC abundance and somatic mutations, copy number variation, and methylation patterns, while microRNA mapping highlighted NMSC-specific networks. Single-cell resolution analysis demonstrated that NMSCs engage epithelial cells and fibroblasts via extracellular matrix-centric signaling axes. Collectively, our findings establish NMSCs as multifaceted TME orchestrators, providing mechanistic rationale for NMSC-targeted diagnostic biomarkers and stromal reprogramming therapies in precision oncology.