Mature and migratory dendritic cells promote immune infiltration and response to anti-PD-1 checkpoint blockade in metastatic melanoma.
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Abstract | Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionized cancer therapy, yet most patients fail to achieve durable responses. To better understand the tumor microenvironment (TME), we analyze single-cell RNA-seq (~189 K cells) from 36 metastatic melanoma samples, defining 14 cell types, 55 subtypes, and 15 transcriptional hallmarks of malignant cells. Correlations between cell subtype proportions reveal six distinct clusters, with a mature dendritic cell subtype enriched in immunoregulatory molecules (mregDC) linked to naive T and B cells. Importantly, mregDC abundance predicts progression-free survival (PFS) with ICIs and other therapies, especially when combined with the TCF7 + /- CD8 T cell ratio. Analysis of an independent cohort (n = 318) validates mregDC as a predictive biomarker for anti-CTLA-4 plus anti-PD-1 therapies. Further characterization of mregDCs versus conventional dendritic cells (cDC1/cDC2) highlights their unique transcriptional, epigenetic (single-nucleus ATAC-seq data for cDCs from 14 matched samples), and interaction profiles, offering new insights for improving immunotherapy response and guiding future combination treatments. |
Year of Publication | 2025
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Journal | Nature communications
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Volume | 16
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Issue | 1
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Pages | 8151
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Date Published | 09/2025
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ISSN | 2041-1723
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DOI | 10.1038/s41467-025-62878-5
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PubMed ID | 40890106
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