Single-cell profiling reveals that SAA1+epithelial cells promote distant metastasis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

作者全名："Shu, Zhao; Guo, Junfeng; Xue, Qian; Tang, Qi; Zhang, Bingqiang"

作者地址："[Shu, Zhao; Xue, Qian; Tang, Qi; Zhang, Bingqiang] Chongqing Med Univ, Affiliated Hosp 1, Dept Gastroenterol, Chongqing, Peoples R China; [Guo, Junfeng] Third Mil Med Univ, Southwest Hosp, Sports Med Ctr, Dept Orthopaed,State Key Lab Trauma Burn & Combine, Chongqing, Peoples R China"

通信作者："Zhang, BQ (通讯作者)，Chongqing Med Univ, Affiliated Hosp 1, Dept Gastroenterol, Chongqing, Peoples R China."

来源：FRONTIERS IN ONCOLOGY

ESI学科分类：CLINICAL MEDICINE

WOS号：WOS:000906153500001

JCR分区：Q2

影响因子：4.7

年份：2022

卷号：12

期号：　

开始页：　

结束页：　

文献类型：Article

关键词：esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; metastasis; scRNA-seq; SAA1; prognosis

摘要："IntroductionEsophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most common cancers globally, with significant cell heterogeneity and poor prognosis. Distant metastasis in ESCC is one of the key factors that affects the prognosis of patients. Methods and resultsStarting with the analysis of ESCC single-cell sequencing data, we constructed a single-cell atlas of ESCC in detail and clarified the cell heterogeneity within tumor tissues. Through analysis of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) levels, gene expression, and pathway activation, we revealed the existence of a novel subpopulation of SAA1+ malignant cells in ESCC that are highly aggressive and closely associated with distant metastasis of ESCC. In vitro wound healing and transwell assays confirmed a strong invasion capacity of ESCC tumor cells with high expression of SAA1. Then, we constructed an effective and reliable prediction model based on the gene expression pattern of SAA1+ malignant cell subpopulations and confirmed that patients in the high-risk group had significantly worse prognosis than those in the low-risk group in the training cohort, internal verification cohort and external verification cohort. DiscussionThis manuscript contributes to exploration of the heterogeneity of ESCC tumor tissues and the search for new ESCC subpopulations with special biological functions. These results contribute to our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of distant metastasis of ESCC and thus provide a theoretical basis for improved therapies."

基金机构：Natural Science Fund Project of Chongqing (CSTC); [2011BB5123]

基金资助正文："Funding This study was supported by Natural Science Fund Project of Chongqing (CSTC, 2011BB5123)."