Systematic characterization of the tumor microenvironment in Chinese patients with hepatocellular carcinoma highlights intratumoral B cells as a potential immunotherapy target.
Oncol Rep
; 47(2)2022 02.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34958112
ABSTRACT
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an immunogenic malignancy, which exhibits low responsiveness to programmed cell death protein1 (PD1)/programmed death ligand1 (PDL1) antibodies. Therefore, the identification of novel immunotherapeutic targets to treat HCC is imperative. Systematic characterization of the HCC tumor microenvironment (TME) can provide novel insight into additional therapeutic approaches. In the present study, the RNAsequencing (RNAseq) data of 360 patients with HCC were integrated from The Cancer Genome Atlas to assess the expression of membrane spanning 4domains A1 (MS4A1; encoding CD20) in tumors and normal liver tissues. Immunofluorescence and multiplex tissue fluorescence analyses were performed and combined with flow cytometry staining to measure CD20/CD19 expression at the protein level. In addition, published single cell RNAseq data of CD45+ cells were derived from 16 treatmentnaïve patients from Beijing Shijitan Hospital with HCC to illustrate the characteristics of CD19+ B cells. The results indicated that the HCC TME included nuclear receptor subfamily 4 group A member 2+ (NR4A2) B cells. Patients with HCC and high density of intratumoral B cells demonstrated compromised antitumor immunity manifested by low percentages of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells and high density of regulatory T cells. Furthermore, PDL1 expression was significantly correlated with the B cell signature marker CD20. The present study indicated that tumorinfiltrating B cells may play a negative role in antitumor immunity and serve as a promising target for HCC immunotherapy, alone or in combination with antiPDL1/PD1 antibodies.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Linfocitos B
/
Carcinoma Hepatocelular
/
Microambiente Tumoral
/
Inmunoterapia
/
Neoplasias Hepáticas
Tipo de estudio:
Prognostic_studies
Límite:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Aged80
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
País/Región como asunto:
Asia
Idioma:
En
Año:
2022
Tipo del documento:
Article