Single-cell transcriptomics reveals regulators underlying immune cell diversity and immune subtypes associated with prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is an aggressive malignancy with extremely skewed ethnic and geographic distributions. Increasing evidence indicates that targeting the tumor microenvironment (TME) represents a promising therapeutic approach in NPC, highlighting an urgent need to deepen the understanding of the complex NPC TME. Here, we generated single-cell transcriptome profiles for 7581 malignant cells and 40,285 immune cells from fifteen primary NPC tumors and one normal sample. We revealed malignant signatures capturing intratumoral transcriptional heterogeneity and predicting aggressiveness of malignant cells. Diverse immune cell subtypes were identified, including novel subtypes such as CLEC9A +…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 2017A030312003, 81802707, 81922057, 81930072; 81922057; 81802707, 2019B020230002, 81930072
• SY
  Sun Yat-sen University
• CP
  China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
• NS
  Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province

  Awards: 2017A030312003, 2019B020230002
• HE
  Higher Education Discipline Innovation Project

  Award: B14035
• FR
  Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

  Awards: 2019B020230002, 2017A030312003, 19ykpy186
• OE
  Overseas Expertise Introduction Project for Discipline Innovation

  Awards: 111 Project, 111 Project, B14035, B14035
• SY
  Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center