Mapping the single-cell landscape of acral melanoma and analysis of the molecular regulatory network of the tumor microenvironments

• Published in: eLife Vol. 11
• Main Authors: He, Zan, Xin, Zijuan, Yang, Qiong, Wang, Chen, Li, Meng, Rao, Wei, Du, Zhimin, Bai, Jia, Guo, Zixuan, Ruan, Xiuyan, Zhang, Zhaojun, Fang, Xiangdong, Zhao, Hua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England eLife Science Publications, Ltd 27.07.2022; eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd; eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
• Subjects: acral melanoma; Analysis; Cancer Biology; Care and treatment; Computational and Systems Biology; Genetic research; Genetics; Humans; Immunotherapy; Melanoma; Melanoma - pathology; Melanoma, Cutaneous Malignant; RNA sequencing; single-cell RNA sequencing; Skin cancer; Skin Neoplasms - genetics; Skin Neoplasms - pathology; Tumor Microenvironment; China; computational biology; single-cell RNA sequencing; systems biology; skin; acral melanoma; cancer biology; tumor microenvironment; human
• ISSN: 2050-084X; 2050-084X
• DOI: 10.7554/eLife.78616

Acral melanoma (AM) exhibits a high incidence in Asian patients with melanoma, and it is not well treated with immunotherapy. However, little attention has been paid to the characteristics of the immune microenvironment in AM. Therefore, in this study, we collected clinical samples from Chinese patients with AM and conducted single-cell RNA sequencing to analyze the heterogeneity of its tumor microenvironments (TMEs) and the molecular regulatory network. Our analysis revealed that genes, such as , , , and could drive the deregulation of various TME components. The molecular interaction relationships between TME cells, such as MIF-CD44 and TNFSF9-TNFRSF9, might be an attractive target for developing novel immunotherapeutic agents.