Single-cell map of diverse immune phenotypes in the acute myeloid leukemia microenvironment

• Published in: Biomarker research 2021-03, Vol.9 (1), p.15-15, Article 15
• Main Authors: Guo, Rongqun, Lü, Mengdie, Cao, Fujiao, Wu, Guanghua, Gao, Fengcai, Pang, Haili, Li, Yadan, Zhang, Yinyin, Xing, Haizhou, Liang, Chunyan, Lyu, Tianxin, Du, Chunyan, Li, Yingmei, Guo, Rong, Xie, Xinsheng, Li, Wei, Liu, Delong, Song, Yongping, Jiang, Zhongxing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acute myeloid leukemia; Analysis; Antigen presenting cells; Biomarkers; Bone marrow; Bone marrow transplantation; CD4 antigen; CD8 antigen; Chemotherapy; Cytokines; Cytotoxicity; Datasets; Dendritic cells; Gene expression; Genetic aspects; Helper cells; Immune cells; Immune phenotypes; Immunological memory; Immunoregulation; Immunosuppression; Immunosurveillance; Immunotherapy; Leukemia; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes T; Macrophages; Memory cells; Microenvironment; Microenvironments; Myeloid leukemia; Patients; Phenotype; Phenotypes; Population; RNA; RNA sequencing; Single-cell RNA sequencing; Survival analysis; T cells
• ISSN: 2050-7771; 2050-7771
• DOI: 10.1186/s40364-021-00265-0

Knowledge of immune cell phenotypes, function, and developmental trajectory in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) microenvironment is essential for understanding mechanisms of evading immune surveillance and immunotherapy response of targeting special microenvironment components. Using a single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) dataset, we analyzed the immune cell phenotypes, function, and developmental trajectory of bone marrow (BM) samples from 16 AML patients and 4 healthy donors, but not AML blasts. We observed a significant difference between normal and AML BM immune cells. Here, we defined the diversity of dendritic cells (DC) and macrophages in different AML patients. We also identified several unique immune cell types including T helper cell 17 (TH17)-like intermediate population, cytotoxic CD4 T subset, T cell: erythrocyte complexes, activated regulatory T cells (Treg), and CD8 memory-like subset. Emerging AML cells remodels the BM immune microenvironment powerfully, leads to immunosuppression by accumulating exhausted/dysfunctional immune effectors, expending immune-activated types, and promoting the formation of suppressive subsets. Our results provide a comprehensive AML BM immune cell census, which can help to select pinpoint targeted drug and predict efficacy of immunotherapy.