Abstract:
The intercellular communication in tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) provides an important niche for tumorigenesis and tumor progression. Most of single cell level studies focus on the crosstalk between tumor cells and immune cells, lacking of research on the intercellular communication among immune cells. Hence, in this study, we collected 11 single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data of CD45+ cells, and deciphered the intercellular communication network among different immune cells in TIME. The results demonstrated that there were significantly more intercellular communications in tumor samples, and 12 differential intercellular communications were detected between tumor and normal samples, including some chemokine -chemokine receptor signaling, interleukin-interleukin-receptor signaling and notch signaling. Most of these signaling and downstream transcription factors (TFs) have been implicated in tumor progression. Survival analysis of some TFs based on the cancer genome altas (TCGA) pan-cancer data indicated that these identified TFs were significantly associated with the overall survival in patients with different cancers. In summary, this study provides a comprehensive view of the intercellular communication landscape among immune cells in TIME, and identifies some specific intercellular communications involved in tumor immunity. We believe that our study provides valuable clues for understanding the mechanisms of tumor progression in TIME and provides possible diagnostic strategies for the tumor diagnosis and treatment.