[PDF][PDF] Single-cell RNA-seq reveals AML hierarchies relevant to disease progression and immunity

P van Galen, V Hovestadt, MH Wadsworth II… - Cell, 2019 - cell.com
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 …
Summary
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
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