Single-Cell RNA-Seq Reveals AML Hierarchies Relevant to Disease Progression and Immunity.

Cell
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease that resides within a complex microenvironment, complicating efforts to understand how different cell types contribute to disease progression. We combined single-cell RNA sequencing and genotyping to profile 38,410 cells from 40 bone marrow aspirates, including 16 AML patients and five healthy donors. We then applied a machine learning classifier to distinguish a spectrum of malignant cell types whose abundances varied between patients and between subclones in the same tumor. Cell type compositions correlated with prototypic genetic lesions, including an association of FLT3-ITD with abundant progenitor-like cells. Primitive AML cells exhibited dysregulated transcriptional programs with co-expression of stemness and myeloid priming genes and had prognostic significance. Differentiated monocyte-like AML cells expressed diverse immunomodulatory genes and suppressed T cell activity in vitro. In conclusion, we provide single-cell technologies and an atlas of AML cell states, regulators, and markers with implications for precision medicine and immune therapies. VIDEO ABSTRACT.

Year of Publication
2019
Journal
Cell
Volume
176
Issue
6
Pages
1265-1281.e24
Date Published
2019 03 07
ISSN
1097-4172
DOI
10.1016/j.cell.2019.01.031
PubMed ID
30827681
PubMed Central ID
PMC6515904
Links
Grant list
DP1 CA216873 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
P50 CA206963 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
R01 HG009269 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
RM1 HG006193 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
R37 CA225191 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
U2C CA233195 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States