Abstract 461: Pan-liver disease single cell-based deconvolution reveals γδ2 T cells as a marker in hepatocellular carcinoma development

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common form of primary adult liver cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. HCC incidence is highest most often in people with chronic liver diseases, yet the effect of cell composition on the progression of chronic liver diseases to HCC remains unknown. Using gene biomarkers of twenty cell-types identified from healthy liver scRNA-seq data, we estimated cell compositions of six chronic liver diseases and HCC based on their bulk RNA-seq samples. We observed a decrease in the enrichment of various health cells as the progression of liver diseases. Compared to a healthy state, liver fibrosis and HCC present higher enrichment of γδ2 T cells and lower enrichment of central venous liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs). High enrichment of γδ2 T cells was specifically observed in HCV and/or HBV positive HCC and advanced HCC. γδ2 T cell is one of the nine cell types that are associated with HCC prognosis. The analysis of multiple independent datasets confirmed that γδ2 T cells enrichment is more associated with poor prognosis in patients with lower Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level and HCV/HBV positive patients. Following pan-cancer analysis suggested enrichment of γδ2 T cells is associated with poor prognosis in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma, kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma, and low grade gliomas. In addition, this type of cells is also enriched in the blood samples of various chronic liver diseases and HCC, indicating the potential of being diagnostic markers. In summary, the integrative bioinformatics analysis identified γδ2 T cells as a marker for HCC progression. Citation Format: Rama Shankar, Jeremy Haskins, Shreya Paithankar, Bin Chen. Pan-liver disease single cell-based deconvolution reveals γδ2 T cells as a marker in hepatocellular carcinoma development [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021; 2021 Apr 10-15 and May 17-21. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(13_Suppl):Abstract nr 461.