1. Academic Validation
  2. Remodeling of the immune and stromal cell compartment by PD-1 blockade in mismatch repair-deficient colorectal cancer

Remodeling of the immune and stromal cell compartment by PD-1 blockade in mismatch repair-deficient colorectal cancer

  • Cancer Cell. 2023 May 9;S1535-6108(23)00137-X. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2023.04.011.
Jianxia Li 1 Cheng Wu 2 Huabin Hu 1 Ge Qin 1 Xueqian Wu 1 Fan Bai 1 Jianwei Zhang 1 Yue Cai 1 Yan Huang 3 Chao Wang 3 Jiaqi Yang 2 Yizhao Luan 2 Zehang Jiang 2 Jiayu Ling 1 Zehua Wu 1 Yaoxu Chen 4 Zhi Xie 2 Yanhong Deng 5
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Medical Oncology, Department of General Surgery, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510655, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Disease, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510655, China.
  • 2 State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510627, China.
  • 3 Department of Pathology, Department of General Surgery, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510655, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Disease, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510655, China.
  • 4 Medical Affairs, 3D Medicines Inc., Shanghai 201114, China.
  • 5 Department of Medical Oncology, Department of General Surgery, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510655, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Disease, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510655, China. Electronic address: dengyanh@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
Abstract

Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy can induce complete responses in mismatch repair-deficient and microsatellite instability-high (d-MMR/MSI-H) colorectal cancers (CRCs). However, the underlying mechanism for pathological complete response (pCR) to immunotherapy has not been completely understood. We utilize single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to investigate the dynamics of immune and stromal cells in 19 patients with d-MMR/MSI-H CRC who received neoadjuvant PD-1 blockade. We found that in tumors with pCR, there is a concerted decrease in CD8+ Trm-mitotic, CD4+ Tregs, proinflammatory IL1B+ Mono and CCL2+ Fibroblast following treatment, while the proportions of CD8+ Tem, CD4+ Th, CD20+ B, and HLA-DRA+ Endothelial cells increase. Proinflammatory features in the tumor microenvironment mediate the persistence of residual tumors by modulating CD8+ T cells and other response-associated immune cell populations. Our study provides valuable resources and biological insights into the mechanism of successful ICI therapy and potential targets for improving treatment efficacy.

Keywords

PD-1 blockade; colorectal cancer; complete response; immune checkpoint inhibitors; microsatellite instability-high; mismatch repair-deficient; neoadjuvant immunotherapy; single-cell RNA sequencing; stromal cells; tumor immune microenvironment.

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