2. Academic Validation
  3. Single-cell transcriptome reveals cellular hierarchies and guides p-EMT-targeted trial in skull base chordoma

Single-cell transcriptome reveals cellular hierarchies and guides p-EMT-targeted trial in skull base chordoma

  • Cell Discov. 2022 Sep 20;8(1):94. doi: 10.1038/s41421-022-00459-2.
Qilin Zhang  # 1 2,  Lijiang Fei  # 3,  Rui Han  # 1 2,  Ruofan Huang  # 2 4,  Yongfei Wang  # 1 2,  Hong Chen  # 2 5,  Boyuan Yao 1 2,  Nidan Qiao 1 2,  Zhe Wang 6,  Zengyi Ma 1 2,  Zhao Ye 1 2,  Yichao Zhang 1 2,  Weiwei Wang 2 7,  Ye Wang 1 2,  Lin Kong 8,  Xuefei Shou 1 2,  Xiaoyun Cao 1 2,  Xiang Zhou 1 2,  Ming Shen 1 2,  Haixia Cheng 2 5,  Zhenwei Yao 2 7,  Chao Zhang 6,  Guoji Guo 9,  Yao Zhao 10 11 12 13 14 15
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Neurosurgery, Huashan Hospital, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
  • 2 National Center for Neurological Disorders, Huashan Hospital, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
  • 3 Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
  • 4 Department of Oncology, Huashan Hospital, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
  • 5 Department of Pathology, Huashan Hospital, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
  • 6 Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Shanghai Institute of Precision Medicine, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
  • 7 Department of Radiology, Huashan Hospital, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
  • 8 Department of Radiation Oncology, Shanghai Proton and Heavy Ion Center, Fudan University Cancer Center, Shanghai, China.
  • 9 Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. ggj@zju.edu.cn.
  • 10 Department of Neurosurgery, Huashan Hospital, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. zhaoyaohs@vip.sina.com.
  • 11 National Center for Neurological Disorders, Huashan Hospital, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. zhaoyaohs@vip.sina.com.
  • 12 State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. zhaoyaohs@vip.sina.com.
  • 13 Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Function Restoration and Neural Regeneration, Shanghai, China. zhaoyaohs@vip.sina.com.
  • 14 Neurosurgical Institute of Fudan University, Shanghai, China. zhaoyaohs@vip.sina.com.
  • 15 National Clinical Research Center for Aging and Medicine, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. zhaoyaohs@vip.sina.com.
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 36127333 DOI: 10.1038/s41421-022-00459-2
Abstract

Skull base chordoma (SBC) is a bone Cancer with a high recurrence rate, high radioresistance rate, and poorly understood mechanism. Here, we profiled the transcriptomes of 90,691 single cells, revealed the SBC cellular hierarchies, and explored novel treatment targets. We identified a cluster of stem-like SBC cells that tended to be distributed in the inferior part of the tumor. Combining radiated UM-Chor1 RNA-seq data and in vitro validation, we further found that this stem-like cell cluster is marked by Cathepsin L (CTSL), a gene involved in the packaging of telomere ends, and may be responsible for radioresistance. Moreover, signatures related to partial epithelial-mesenchymal transition (p-EMT) were found to be significant in malignant cells and were related to the invasion and poor prognosis of SBC. Furthermore, YL-13027, a p-EMT inhibitor that acts through the TGF-β signaling pathway, demonstrated remarkable potency in inhibiting the invasiveness of SBC in preclinical models and was subsequently applied in a phase I clinical trial that enrolled three SBC patients. Encouragingly, YL-13027 attenuated the growth of SBC and achieved stable disease with no serious adverse events, underscoring the clinical potential for the precision treatment of SBC with this therapy. In summary, we conducted the first single-cell RNA Sequencing of SBC and identified several targets that could be translated to the treatment of SBC.

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