空间转录组学分析揭示 CCL17 和 CCL22 是血管免疫母细胞性 T 细胞淋巴瘤 (AITL) 抑制性免疫环境的稳健指标

T cell lymphoma is a complex and highly aggressive clinicopathological entity with a poor outcome. The angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL) tumor immune microenvironment is poorly investigated.

Here, to the best of our knowledge, spatial transcriptomics was applied for the first time to study AITL.

Using this method, we observed that AITL was surrounded by cells bearing immune-suppressive markers. CCL17 and CCL22, the dominant ligands for CCR4, were up-regulated, while the expression of natural killer (NK) cell and CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) markers decreased. Colocalization of Treg cells with the CD4+ TFH-GC region was also deduced from the bioinformatic analysis. The results obtained with spatial transcriptomics confirm that AITL has a suppressive immune environment. Chemotherapy based on the CHOP regimen (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine plus prednisone) induced complete remission (CR) in this AITL patient. However, the duration of remission (DoR) remains a concern.

This study demonstrates that AITL has an immune suppressive environment and suggests that anti-CCR4 therapy could be a promising treatment for this lethal disease.