Need Help?

Single-cell RNA-seq of immune cells sorted from human melanoma tumors

Tumor immune cell compositions play a major role in response to immunotherapy but the heterogeneity and dynamics of immune infiltrates in human cancer lesions remain poorly characterized. Here we identify conserved intratumoral CD4 and CD8 T cell behaviors in scRNA-seq data from 25 melanoma patients. We discover a large population of CD8 T cells showing continuous progression from an early effector "transitional" into a dysfunctional T cell state. CD8 T cells that express a complete cytotoxic gene set are rare, and TCR sharing data suggest their independence from the transitional and dysfunctional cell states. Notably, we demonstrate that dysfunctional T cells are the major intratumoral proliferating immune cell compartment and that the intensity of the dysfunctional signature is associated with tumor-reactivity. Our data demonstrate that CD8 T cells previously defined as exhausted, are in fact a highly proliferating, clonal and dynamically differentiating cell population within the human tumor microenvironment.

Click on a Dataset ID in the table below to learn more, and to find out who to contact about access to these data

Dataset ID Description Technology Samples
EGAD00001004497 Illumina MiSeq NextSeq 500 204
Publications Citations
Dysfunctional CD8 T Cells Form a Proliferative, Dynamically Regulated Compartment within Human Melanoma.
Cell 176: 2019 775-789.e18
582
Deciphering Innate Immune Cell-Tumor Microenvironment Crosstalk at a Single-Cell Level.
Front Cell Dev Biol 10: 2022 803947
5