Single-cell analysis reveals fibroblast clusters linked to immunotherapy resistance in cancer

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Kieffer, Yann | Hocine, Hocine Rachid | Gentric, Géraldine | Pelon, Floriane | Bernard, Charles | Bourachot, Brigitte | Lameiras, Sonia | Albergante, Luca | Bonneau, Claire | Guyard, Alice | Tarte, Karin | Zinovyev, Andrei | Baulande, Sylvain | Zalcman, Gérard | Vincent-Salomon, Anne | Mechta-Grigoriou, Fatima

Edité par CCSD ; American Association for Cancer Research -

International audience. A subset of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts (FAP+/CAF-S1) mediates immunosuppression in breast cancers (BC), but its heterogeneity and its impact on immunotherapy response remain unknown. Here, we identify 8 CAF-S1 clusters by analyzing more than 19000 single CAF-S1 fibroblasts from BC. We validate the 5 most abundant clusters by flow cytometry and in silico analyses in other cancer types, highlighting their relevance. Myofibroblasts from clusters 0 and 3, characterized by extra-cellular matrix proteins and TGFB signaling respectively, are indicative of primary resistance to immunotherapies. Cluster 0/ecm-myCAF up-regulates PD-1 and CTLA-4 protein levels in regulatory T lymphocytes (Tregs), which in turn increases CAF-S1 cluster 3/TGFB-myCAF cellular content. Thus, our study highlights a positive feedback loop between specific CAF-S1 clusters and Tregs and uncovers their role in immunotherapy resistance.

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