Expression profiling by high throughput sequencing
Summary
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) produce durable responses in some melanoma patients, but many patients derive no clinical benefit, and the molecular underpinnings of such resistance remain elusive. Here, we leveraged single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) from 31 melanoma tumors and novel computational methods to interrogate malignant cell states that promote immune evasion. We identified a resistance program expressed by malignant cells that is associated with T cell exclusion and immune evasion. The program is present prior to immunotherapy, characterizes cold niches, and predicts clinical responses to anti-PD-1 therapy in an independent cohort of 112 melanoma patients. CDK4/6-inhibition represses this program in individual malignant cells, induces senescence, and reduces melanoma tumor outgrowth in a mouse model when given in combination with immunotherapy. Our study provides a high-resolution landscape of ICI resistant cell states, identifies clinically predictive signatures, and forms a basis for the development of novel therapeutic strategies that could overcome immunotherapy resistance.
Overall design
Individual cells were dissociated from fresh tumor resections, isolated immune and non-immune cells by FACS based on CD45 staining, and profiled with a modified full length SMART-Seq2 protocol.
** Submitter declares that the raw reads will be made available through dbGaP. **
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